Digital BW, The Print

I have been using the Ultratone inks for some time now and have found 
them to be a significant improvement over the old VM inks. I print 
with an 1160 printer and generally use semigloss papers. The 
following are my experiences with these inks:

1) There is nothing comparable for black and white printing on 
semigloss or glossy papers. Forget about Piezography. The old VM inks 
required an overcoat spray to prevent rubbing off. This is no longer 
a problem with the new Ultratone inks. Personally, I have yet to see 
a digital black and white print that looks even remotely as good on a 
matte paper as on a semigloss paper. Typically, comparisons of the 
same image printed on a matte paper vs. a semigloss paper (with the 
appropriate black of course) leave the image on the matte paper 
looking extremely flat and muddy. I suppose this must appeal to some, 
but I have been surprised that more individuals do not seem to have 
been bothered by the inability of black and white inks to print on 
semigloss or glossy papers. The Ultratones now give this flexibility. 
I have had most success printing on Pictorico's Premium Photo Glossy 
Paper and Epson's Professional Glossy Paper (reasons noted below).

2) Unlike the old VM inks, the Ultratones do not seem to have even 
the slightest problem with clogging. I am using the photo black in 
cartridges (not a CFS yet) and I have yet to experience a single 
issue with clogging. I have left the inks sitting in the printer 
unused for well over a month and been able to start printing without 
a head cleaning (or at most just one). I should note that I live on 
the Front Range in Colorado at 5000 feet and am in an extremely dry 
climate. The old VM black caused so many clogging problems in this 
climate that I eventually had to replace a head on my printer.

3) The new curves Paul has made for the Ultratones on the 1160 are a 
significant upgrade over the old VM curves. I had puddling problems 
with the old VM curves and the new Ultratone inks. The new curves 
solved this issue. Not only that, but they lay down less ink and 
consequently result in markedly improved image quality with smoother 
transitions on the grey scale (Note that all of this pertains 
particularly to my experiences printing on semigloss paper. I am sure 
the same would hold on matte or glossy papers however). On semigloss 
papers, there are now absolutely no visible dots in higlights on the 
1160. It's quite impressive. This was not the case with the old 
curves and the VM inks. In general, my experience has been that 
printing on glossy or semigloss papers is considerably more demanding 
from the system as a whole than printing on matte papers. Matte 
papers seem to smooth out any imperfections, whereas semigloss and 
glossy papers readily show any weaknesses - be it in the printer not 
having perfectly clean heads or the inks not being perfectly 
linearized etc.

All this said, areas for improvement with the Ultratones might be as 
follows:

1) The new curves for the 1160 are just about perfect on matte paper. 
They will need some adjusting on glossy/semigloss papers. I have 
found there to be a large jump between 100% and 95% that can be 
visually distracting. I have yet to fix this. Paul is ultimately much 
more qualified to deal with this than I am. 

2) Bronzing is apparent on some glossy or semigloss papers. I found 
there to be some distracting reflectance issues with the Ultratones 
on some papers. It is not horrible, but it can be an issue. The 
reason I print on the Pictorico paper and the Epson Professional 
Photo paper is that these two papers seem to almost completely 
eliminate this problem. (I should note I'm still experimenting with 
other papers at this time.) Epson Premium Semigloss seems acceptable, 
but not quite as good in this respect when compared with the two 
aforementioned papers. Premium Luster does not fare quite as well. I 
would encourage you to experiment for yourself if interested.

All in all, I highly recommend these inks. They are a vast 
improvement over the old VM inks, and Paul and MIS deserve much 
credit for their hard work and effort and for providing this system 
at such a reasonable price.

Regards,
Dirk Hobman



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, BOB KRAMER 
<bobkramer@c...> wrote:
> Jeff, you might consider buying the small 2 oz. bottles of the 
Ultratone
> inks and a set of virgin cartridges.  It won't cost you much more 
than a set
> of preloaded carts, and they are quite easy to load yourself.  This 
inkset
> is great!  Much better than the original quad and VM inks that I 
had been
> using previously.  You really should give them a try.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Bob
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Magidson [mailto:jef.jef@v...]
> Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 6:23 PM
> To: digital bw group
> Subject: [Digital BW] MIS Ultra-tone inks
> 
> 
> Hey Everyone;
> 
> Does anyone know what the status of the MIS ultra-tone inks are? On 
the 
> MIS web site they are still listed as "experimental" and only 
available 
> in bottles. I would like to buy a set in carts to give them a try.
> 
> I did make some nice prints with the VM set...printing mostly with 
the 
> medium warm and warm curves. However, after these prints where 
exposed 
> to indirect light for a short time they warmed to great degree... 
much 
> MUCH greater then the moderate increments of the medium warm -vs- 
the 
> warm curve. For me that does not make this inkset usable. I have 
heard 
> that when printing with the more neutral curves or cool curves the 
> prints do not warm much.