Digital BW, The Print

I can't offer much help but I have some observations.

I unboxed a new Epson 2200 this last week which I purchased for making black and white prints. I too am quite interested in neutral prints. One of the first test prints I made was of a 21 step wedge on Enhanced Matte with Matte ink. There was a definite magenta cast to the print, especially in the middle to light tones. I tried printing the same step wedge on the same paper selecting Epson Watercolor paper as the media. This combination produced a much more neutral print with some very slight magenta in the middle tones. This is a sort of "shot in the dark" fix that is easy to try.

As a side observation, which may or may not be relevant, my printer has been using light magenta ink at a faster rate than the other inks. And many ink suppliers are out of stock on the light magenta cartridge.

I am in the process of having custom printer profiles made for three of the papers I use in hopes this will lead me toward more neutral prints, or at least understanding the problem.

Jim Richey
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: martinshakeshaft 
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2003 2:24 AM
  Subject: [Digital BW] Neutral black and white prints with the Epson 2100/2200?


  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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