Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "normsams" <normsams@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2003 8:46 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Piezography/Sundance Confusion


> Are the Sundance inks the same as the Piezo inks?  If not are they
> compatible with the Piezography software?  Is the Image Export BW sold by
> BWGuys the same as the Piezography software?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
Norm,

Well I don't know if all our answers have helped or added to your
understandable confusion.

Here is the timeline as I understand it. (Someone please jump in if I have
any of this wrong.)

Sundance, an ink company, and R9, a software company, teamed up and started
marketing Sundance inks and the R9 plugin driver to go with them. They sold
the inks through Digital Art Supplies. They then entered into an exclusive
marketing arrangement for 2(?) years with ConeTech (Inkjetmall) who
rebranded the inks and the plug-in as Piezography.

Only one hue or color of quad inks was available and it suffered from
various problems, primarily excessive clogging, the ink warm shifted with
time and some people felt the ink had a bit of a green cast to it. The
software worked very well and is still regarded highly. Initially the
software cost was high.

(In the mean time MIS released a set of inks called "Full Spectrum" which
closely matched the hue and density of the original Piezo inks so that they
could be used with the Piezo/R9 plug-in. They also offered lower cost and
greatly improved clogging, warm shift and fade. I will leave the MIS
Variable Mix inks out of this discussion.)

At the end of the exclusive marketing contract Inkjetmall and Sundance/R9
separated their ink business. Inkjetmall brought out a new line of inks
called PiezoTone that comes in 4 hues, Warm, Cool, Selenium and
Carbon-Sepia. These are designed to be used with the Piezo/R9 plug-in.
Inkjetmall has announced the immanent release of new software that will
entirely end their business connection to R9. Significantly their new
software promises to expand the usable printers for grayscale inks to brands
of printers other than Epson.

When the split occurred Sundance/R9 started doing business under the name
BWGuys.com. They continue to sell the original Sundance/Piezo ink under the
name "Sundance BW Neutral Warm Ink" and introduced a new ink "Sundance BW
Neutral Cool" which has a different chemistry and does not suffer from the
problems noted with the original ink. My understanding is that they have
continued to develop the plug-in which they call "Image Export BW" and that
it has additional paper profiles not in the Piezo plug-in. Sundance/R9 have
also recently released new inks "Septones" based on their new ink chemistry
and new software "Pixel Pixasso) designed to work in the new Epson 7-color
printers. The system uses a black, 3 warm gray inks and 3 cool gray inks
with the software to provide a variable hue printing solution with the ease
of use of the plugin.

If you are still confused I don't blame you!

Martin Wesley