Digital BW, The Print

> The deeper "black-black" will always look better -- for a few
months.  But
> that is like comparing a dye black to a pigment black.  If you use
the Gen 4
> Enhanced black with the MIS inks, they too would have more snap. 
It's a
> trade off between deepness of black and longevity/lightfastness.
> 
> Paul


Jim,

http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/1000-hours.html

Take a look at the fade rates for the different inks. Look at the 
gray components and look at the fade rates of just the black 
components. The PiezoTone grays are built to avoid any 
discernible  fade. The comparison to other brands is via the
"Warm Neutral" version of each brand so as not to compare
warm neutral apples to blue oranges and brown pears. We
understand that bluer inks have better longevity than neutral
warm inks. Our users favor the warm neutrals so we invested
in testing other warm neutral brands.

The black which I think is the most underrated is the Portfolio
Black. Its ending density is greater than Museum Black so you 
can have good starting and ending dMax. Museum Black is 
for those who want an ink which does not shift at all. This may
be overkill for the industry which has become used to moderate
to high levels of brown fading and density fading. Nonetheless,
we offer it.

PiezoTones are definitely very high longevity inks which when 
paired with Museum Black will have no discernible fade. And 
when paired with Portfolio Black will have only a marginal 
amount of black density loss, but to an O.D. which is higher 
than competing blacks.

In regards to the original question about comparing workflows 
to drivers, if  you are on the EPSON 860/1160 the new 
PiezographyBW system will be shipping first. You might consider 
listening to the users remarks after the beta program ends in 
just a few weeks and see if it adds more confusion to your 
decision or a superior choice. The new PiezographyBW system 
does not require any plugin or special printer drivers. It allows 
you to work from grayscale and print directly to the EPSON or
select CANON (s9000 should ship by May) printers from 
Photoshop or any other application which supports grayscale 
images. In Photoshop you can use the profiles to preview the
"color" of the inks, the paper "color", and the black density. That
preview works with the grayscale image and in our workshops
it has proven to be the best workflow because the user has an
aesthetic interface to the editing of their black & white images.
The prints are "truer" to their intentions when they were
Photoshop'ing their images. They also prefer the output 
linearization and smoothness.

Hope this helps.

Jon Cone
http://www.piezography.com