Digital BW, The Print

A caution: I had a problem with Piezo inks. I no longer think they are 
viable for longterm use in 1160. Hate to say that, that's just my 
experience. My experience with MIS inks is new, so they are to be 
taken as my initial impressions only.

After a year with Piezo inks, I'm discontinuing them. I can't clear my 
printer fully of what is now called "Hayes Syndrome" on the Piezo 
list. When I compare MIS Full Spectrum inks set up on a spare 1160 
with the Piezo prints from my old clogging up with Piezo printer, the 
Piezo inks definetly have a green tinge, and remnants of the other 
symptoms.

I very much like the tone of these  FS MIS inks, a bit warm but nice, 
not sickly.

Until this problem is solved (and Cone says he IS working on it) I'm 
not going back. I really don't mean to badmouth his setup<sigh>.

OTOH I find that even using John Woolf's workflow, when I examine 
prints done with Epson driver ("error diffusion" setting") vs Piezo 
driver with MIS FS inks, I can see dots in highlights and I get very 
tiny tiny microbanding with Epson driver/Woolf workflow....but the 
Piezo driver is smooth. This is counter-intuitive for microbanding, 
but there it is. Please note that I only see the highlight dots and 
microbanding when using my CRI 98 Ott-lite and viewing from 1 foot 
away. I don't know why, but viewed under typical tungsten lighting of 
varying intensity, I can't see the dots/banding at all.

The piezo driver seems  (still some uncertainy)to print a bit 
contratier than the Epson. In this case for some photos, I wonder if 
the Epson driver still might be better, if a textured paper was used. 
S. E. photo textured paper seems to "almost" hide the microbanding 
even when I put the Ott-lite up real close.

I am curious if I have the settings wrong for the Woolf workflow. His 
screen shot of settings did not match my driver dialogue choices, so I 
e-mailed him as to the discrepancies (i.e. "Halftone" setting not 
availabe, J.W.---->use "error diffusion" instead).

So, if I can swing it, I'll be using the Piezo driver with MIS FS 
inkset. I am going to conduct my usual fade testing of some papers 
profiled by Cone in this manner, as some on the Piezo list are aware I 
already do.
Jim H.