Digital BW, The Print

Andre,


>--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Roark"
><paul.roark@v...> wrote:

>> ... the FS inks are old-style inks -- they have some dye in them.
>>The standard FS warms.  The FS-N does not warm, but it is
>>no more lightfast than the FS.

>Your comments raises some concerns. Does this apply even with the new
>Eboni black and what is the lightfastness of the FS-N inkset compared
>to the UT inkset ?

The old vm black was just one of the problems.  I believe the black inks
from which the FS & FS-N inksets were mixed had dye in them.  So, the old
midtones are "polluted" in my view.  The FS-N will look good for a long time
because it does not warm significantly, but it's not in the same class as
the Ultra-Tones.  It fades at the same rate as the FS inkset (which is
largely what it is).

We were originally led to beleive that the old black pigs were "coated" with
a black colorant.  The clear impression was that it was a solid substance
around the carbon core.  This has now been labeled an "urban myth" (by the
same unnamed person -- not at MIS -- who, I beleive, originally spread the
myth).  I beleive that the old carbon blacks simply had liquid dye thrown
in, just in a lesser amount than the Gen 4 hybrid.

My fade tests suggest that the warming experienced by the older inkset is
90% caused by the dyes burning off.  The carbon warming is a very small and
slow.  The apparently lower fade/warm rate of the vm-cool/cold and FS-N
inksets is due to the cyan pigment that was used.  That cyan pigment is
extremely lightfast compared to the other pigments and dyes at the time.
So, as they faded, the cyan became relatively more prominent and offset some
of the warming.

The current generation of carbon, however, is even better than the cyan
pigments.  That is probably why the PT warm-neutral is more lightfast than
the PT selenium.  Also, the latest color pigments are even better than the
old MIS "archival" set.

I think it was the UltraChrome light black and Photo Black, and, more
precisely, the clone inks of that inkset, that got us pure carbon to work
from.  All the quad inksets before these came out were based on the old
("polluted," as it turns out) black inks.  Before the new "high load" inks
were developed, there was simply no way to get a good black except by adding
black dye.  Since the B&W market is so tiny, the inks that were use for it
were simply dilutions of the black inks that were used in the color inksets.

Frankly, I want MIS to discontinue all the old inksets.  I doubt they will,
but I think as long as they are used the field will be hurt by the warming
and fading of those dye-polluted inksets.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com