Digital BW, The Print

Steve wrote:

>...
>I bought a brand new printer, never run anything in it, and a set of
>MIS GP colour inks (uses Eboni as the black)

>The black clogged, and clogged and I never, once, got a good print ...

I've heard that one should always run OEM Epson inks through a new printer
to get some substance out of the head that is used to (I guess) preserve
them in storage.  Perhaps Eboni and this substance are incompatible.

>I had my other 1290 running the old VM hex set.  I switched to the
>Ultratones, ... with a new CIS cart, the black just clogged ...

I think Jerry found that there were a number of defective CIS units shipped.
I can't say if this was the problem you ran into, but he noticed, I believe,
that his black carts were not filling completely due to an ineffective
vacuum.  This caused the system to such air instead of ink.

My first impression of these "high load" black inks (UltraChrome Matte
Black, PiezoTone Museum black, and Eboni) was that they printed slightly
rougher than the old VM K in my 1160.  MIS mentioned that Museum's viscosity
was close to the limit of what Epson printers could handle, and I think
Eboni is very close to Museum (if not identical).  MIS thought they could
lower the viscosity and help the problem, but I'm not sure what, if
anything, they did to further process the ink.

I've found that with curves that keep the black ink as far down in the ramp
as possible the roughness disappears and the prints are clearly better than
the old VM K prints.  And, of course, the longevity/lightfastness of these
inks is just terrific.

Perhaps I've just been lucky.  I have not used a CIS/CFS with them, in part
because I switch blacks on the 1160, in part, to use RC papers, but also
just to try different inks.  (I currently have Epson Matte black in the
1160.)

So far, I'd say Eboni (and the other high-load blacks) and definitely the
Ultra Tone B&W inkset are worth whatever teething problems there may.  I
think the UT midtones (now that they are mixed correctly by MIS) are
relatively problem-free.  With the Eboni ink, its high-load character may
introduce some issues that are new to us.  (I'm not sure if there have been
any similar clogging issues with the other high-load blacks.)  Ironically,
MIS's big push for Eboni is to get rid of the FS/VM black due to it's
clogging caused by the co-solvent base.  (The co-solvent was probably also
largely responsible for the PiezoBW ink clogging.)

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com