Digital BW, The Print

Hi all,

Recent discussions on Piezography 'vs' MIS have become a little heated ;)
For a moment, I thought we must have been having a tete-a-tete about Mac
'vs' Window <grins>

Am I alone in thinking that the 'crystalisation' (the term which I assume
means - ink build-up on pads) is a good thing? Because, to me it says "This
ink contains pigment"! Of course, I am no ink chemist, that's just my gut
feeling.

And besides, if I have to clean a print-head once in a while, or wipe a pad
down - how is that different from the maintenence of cleaning a lens? Or
mixing chemicals? Perhaps we could all spend some time recounting dark-room
'horror' stories? Mine generally involve fellow students dragging the
corners of their prints over mine in the wash tray ;) Or perhaps someone
could tell me what being 'sensitised' to darkroom chemicals really means to
them?

I personally believe that the CIS system is not really a contributing factor
to any Piezo issues that people may encounter... tho' I have asked myself
the question in the past 'Could the sponge be reacting with the ink in some
way?' My _personal_ experience is not...

...and equally, I would be hesitant to draw _any_ conclusions about the
Piezo BW inks from performance of the Piezo Color inks. In the same way that
would still be happy to get into a F**d or drive a car with F***st**e tyres!
[but maybe not both together ;) ]

My personal viewpoint on all third part products starts with an assumption
that any volume manufacturer will design a 'lowest common denominator'
system. In Epson's case, that means their inks (in my view) must have had a
'free-flowing, easy to use' as a critical design criteria. Why? Because
supporting tens of thousands of users with a clogged nozzle would not be
feasible. Therefore, my assumption is that this would have been designed in
at the cost of ink-life, or cost, or metamerism, or whatever. In just the
same way that we can be assured that they will endeavour to protect their
ink market with whatever dastardly means they can ;) I have not seen a C80
myself yet, but if the person I spoke to was correct, and the carts are such
a new design they may be patentable....... then we can wave bye-bye to third
party inks and 'hello' to inks designed for 'the masses'. Really -  be
thankful you have the printers and _choice_ that you do!

It is inevitable therefore, that I would like to Applaud those at IJM and
MIS and Lincoln etc etc - even if we all know that you can not please every
printer, all of the time :) And let's add in Epson for the moment for making
some pretty nice printers :)

Best,
Nij


Nigel Rheam
MWORDS Limited   www.mwords.co.uk
P.S. Disclosure: I sell Piezography :)