Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "mh" <mh@t...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "jim hayes" <
> jimhayes@f...> wrote:
> > Paul might know the answer to this, I thought he said they are more
> > dense(?).
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > My dream system would be UC based all grey inkset loaded into 2200
> > carts at a reasonable price so I don't have to mess with cart
> > filling/chip resetting. And minimum of clogging of course.
> > 
> > Meantime I'm glad Paul has something coming out in the UC vein for at
> > least 1160/1280.
> > Jim H.
> 
> I was under the impression that ultrachromes were less archival than 
> other inksets (generations for instance)
> 
> -mh

Actually I think my dream system might be to replace just the Y with a
very light grey. Might work really well for a kind of VM inkset...

I haven't used Generations, and I'm not sure what you mean by archival.
If you mean yellowing due to acidity, I can't help as I'm not a chemist. 

Depending on the paper, Wilhelm is rating them very high. I think Paul
said he thought the fade was better with UC but I don't want to put
words in his mouth.

If you want to know my gory  fade test experiences with 2200/IP5 to
print greyscale read on, YMMV... 

I've done South window tests now and then. At various times I've
tested PiezoBW, MIS FS, MIS VM, and now, the UC /IP5 inkset. I'd take
a sample  and after drying spray it with Imageshield (or not), then
put 1/2 the samples in a light tight box and stick the others to the
window glass with a seperation of approx a 4 ply mat board.

The sun is very intense here in Colorado at elevation, and we have 60
days or less of cloudy weather a year.


Heres what I found: Almost invariably the  PiezoBW/MIS ink warms on
almost every paper I tried. The most stable paper was Eclipse, it beat
out photorag. I think I tried Archival mat once (PiezoBW) in the
distant past and this performed perhaps even better than Eclipse, but
I didn't run the test concurrently and used different inks. Normally I
would check the samples every 1-2 weeks.  Vaugely, the warming would 
show up distinctly after three weeks to 5 or 6 weeks and then hit a
plateau more or less.

Fading was much less an issue, most of the time overshadowed by
warming. The Imageshield coat helped in 100% of my tests but to
varying degrees. I always used the sprayed-light tight-box samples as
a reference- I didn't reprint the sample anew to check it. SO this is
a relative fade test.

I put up 22000/IP5 sample wedges (Paul's) at about Christmas. I
sprayed all samples, and printed wedges at tint (50, 50 neutral),
(100,100) and (100,0). I used both 308 Photorag and 190gsm Eclipse
Satine BW.

Then unfortunately, I just plain din't have time to look at them as I
got busy. I finally took them down March 1st. That's 8 or 9 weeks,
longer than anything else I had run.

I just took a look at them now, comparing them to boxed samples. I
haven't given them more than about ten minutes of examination
visually,  but preliminary looks like there is maybe a minute bit of
warming, and possibly a tiny bit of lightening or fade, but hard to
tell it's so close to boxed sample. It would be difficult to
immediately tell them apart if they wern't labelled.

So in frustration, I trimmed the top off of the boxed (50,50) photorag
and Eclipse samples and lined them up on top of the window samples.
The gradient on the Eclipse samples looks like it has warmed a barely
discernable amount. Fading not present. The Photorag samples more or
less match (excepting water stain noted below).

At any rate, previous tests with MIS ink would show warming that was
MUCH more obvious at a glance in 1/3 to 1/2 the exposure time.

One of the samples got a water stain on it, but outside of this looks
to match boxed sample. It does indicate it was exposed to high levels
of humidity from condensate (on cold days on the window with a
humidifier running in room).
Jim H.