Digital BW, The Print

Thanks for your comments Antonis.  The 2200 with MIS Ultratones would 
indeed be an attractive option.  I assume it might be possible to just 
ignore the Epson light black channel when developing curves for the 
2200/Ultratone setup?

March 26, 2003, at 06:41  PM, Antonis Ricos wrote:

> Carl,
>
> I haven't done exhaustive tests with the 2200. From looking at my 
> grayscales
> and discussing with Robert, I expect that on glossy papers highlights 
> will be
> dotty, especially if only the black and gray is used.  Papers like 
> Hahnemuehle
> German Etching hide the dots quite a bit.
>
>  In that respect, the realities of the hardware are the same 
> regardless of
> software. I personally have an aversion to seing little bright dots of 
> color in the
> highlights, but I guess one could bring in Light Cyan or L.Magenta as 
> a way to
> blend out the dots. Better yet... use the MIS Ultratones when they 
> become
> "official" and blend out the dots with gray.  The 2200 has a 
> significant
> advantage over previous generation machines in putting down finer 
> dots, but I
> think it still needs one more gray to match a 4 ink grayscale.
>
> As for crossover, it is not an issue because of the way profiles are 
> built in IJC.
> Unlike ICC-based complex calculations for maintaining the gray axis and
> dealing with color temperature and the like, here you have a simple 
> curve for
> each of  the color inks you wish to use.  You simply put more or less 
> color in
> parts of the gray scale as you wish.  In fact, you can see the curves 
> for all
> active inks at the same time and decide how your color inks relate to 
> the gray
> ones. It's more a matter of user- choice than an accidental result of 
> internal
> calculations of a color profile making app.
>
> Antonis