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Digital BW, The Print

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Neutral black and white prints with the Epson 2100/2200?

2003-03-30 by martinshakeshaft

I know from the archive that this subject has been covered before but 
I have still to see a definitive answer.

Is it possible to get neutral black and white prints with the Epson
2100/2200?

Well here I am one box of paper down and I have still to see a black 
and white print that I like!

Straight out of the box I find the black and white prints I am 
getting are too magenta, especially with the Semi gloss paper samples 
included with the printer. So I tried Ilford Smooth Gloss. These were 
a bit better but still not what I wanted. I have surfed around the 
net for advice, including Redriver and luminous-landscape and whilst 
the quality improves when I hold my prints next to a traditional 
darkroom print the differences are all too depressingly obvious. 
There are colour casts in some tonal ranges.....

So I turned to the Grey Balancer. Several prints later and a lot less 
ink and I still don't appear to be any further on towards a totally 
neutral, Ilford Multigrade looking print.

Even prints printed with black ink only are not neutral, they look 
slightly cyan in the darker tonal ranges.

I phoned Lyson Inks who say a Black and white set of inks will be 
available in the next couple of weeks for the 2100/2200, so is this 
my only answer? I am disappointed if this is the route I have to take 
as I did want to be able to print colour and black and white, but 
black and white is my bread and butter work at the moment.

Any help would be appreciated.

Martin

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