Digital BW, The Print

Colin,

<<The 1290 will print smoother than an
1160. Part of this improvement is the
lack of any dots in the highlights from the toner.
Part of the improvement is smoother shadow tones.>>

> It's the smoother shadow tones that I am interested in for figure studies.

The 1290 may still be smoother than the 1160 in the shadows due to it being
a more modern printer, but with Ultra Tone inks and the new 1160 curves, it
could be the other way around.  The comparison above was before the new
curves and UT inks.  Not having seen a 1290 UT output, I can't say how good
that combination will be.

It is true that the old 1160 curves with the Eboni, Museum, or the Epson UC
matte black (the high-load matte black inks) showed more roughness than the
old vm K. This in combination with the 1160's older design made for some
rough shadow tones.  However, with the new curves I was able to push the
black starting point so low that the problem disappeared on the 1160.  I
also pushed the cyan (dark gray ink) starting point way down, so the dots in
the highlights were greatly reduced or eliminated for most viewers.

I'm not certain how the 1290 will print with the UT inks, but the new 1280
curves are very similar to the 1290 curves, and the 1280 with these new
curves and UT ink is very smooth, slightly better than the 1160 with it's
new curves.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com