Digital BW, The Print

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



Your comments in post 29094 were on 14 April and you also wrote:  "if 
I can find time to improve the 1160 curves some of the differences 
can be minimized, but some quality differences will still be visible 
to perfectionists."

Your latest curves were posted on 8 May by Martin when I was in the 
US, and not on quite the spending spree that I thought I would be 
because I forewent the Ultratone option.  Am I correct in assuming 
that these posted new curves were developed after you expressed your 
concerns over smoothness in the shadows on an 1160?

If I am going to order for my (spare) 1160, I might as well go for a 
CFS: from your earlier post I had discarded this option and am still 
wondering if I should buy a 1290 for black and white ultratones 
only.  Two questions arise: any idea when the caveat emptor will be 
lifted by MIS on the ultratones and, second, could I not buy a 6 line 
CFS and use it on the 1160 with two black lines (Pk and Ebony), the 
three colours and one redundant, placing the second black cart not 
being used on the ledge in a cradle?  Or is refilling cartridges the 
way to go?

Colin