Digital BW, The Print

Clark,

>... Do you like ESFA as well?

No.  It prints blotchy for me. Perhaps it's an ink load problem, but
whatever it is, I find it and Crane Museo to be way down my list of paper's
I'd use.

>For my 1160, which has the original Piezo
>ink, it makes sense that I should simply try
>the PiezoTone Selenium... Are you suggesting
>a modified software approach over the
>standard Piezo driver?

One of the many nice things about the old quad printers like the 1160 is
that you can use either the Piezo driver or the Epson driver with the same
ink setup (not true for hextone printers).  There are curves in the Files
section of this forum (and also that several of us have) that allow the
Piezo inks to print with the Epson driver.  This results in a better black
dmax, among other things.

>P.S. One friend wrote the following offline,
>and I too wish all this was easier to grasp,
>and to execute. It will be in time, I guess...
>>>\ufffd...i honestly think that that whole
>>> quadtone approach is a bunch of
>>> hassle, due to no way to softproof it.

You can calibrate your monitor.

>>> it's too rubegoldberg for me....the
>>> more i mess with this crap, the less
>>>\ufffdmessin' with it, the less riggin', the
>>> less BS, the better.

Easier would be better, but at what cost in terms of image quality?  I
wonder if this person ever does high-quality wet darkroom printing.  I
frankly don't expect a simple procedure to produce the best prints.

>>> honestly, i'm not
>>> happy with ANY output i've seen, from
>>> ANY of the printers. really. honestly.
>>> down deep.

Well, to me, the matte finish does give a non-photo impression at first.
You'll see a lot of people trying to achieve the "air-dried, fiber-based
silver-print" look here, and we're not there yet.  I'd guess that is a part
of the reaction of your friend.

On the other hand, under glass my quad prints generally look superior to my
silver prints.  Also, having become accustomed to the matte look, I now find
the reflections off most simple glossy photos to be worse than the flat
matte look.  (I really dislike reflections interfering with the photo and
lowering the dmax.  One of my projects has been to perfect the polyurethane
(or other) coating system so that I can get rid of the glass.)

At any rate, I guess we all have different tolerances for the negatives of
the quad printing systems.  I tried all sorts of ways to get good B&W output
from my digital files (Imagesetter, LVT, and Fujix Pictograph internegatives
to silver, dye and color pigment inks, among others) and the inkjet quad is
the only approach I've been satisfied with.

(Frankly, I'm not sure I want a simple push-button system to be able to
match the work I do.  Like I said, the 7500 with Ultra Tones and an EEM roll
is almost too cheap and easy now.)

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com