Digital BW, The Print

I have been experimenting with the 980 and the MIS VM inkset for 
several months now, and have achieved good, but not great results.  
Following advice from this Forum, I also have been using the Roark 
1160 curves (usually the cooler ones of the four).  I have not seen 
the grainyness to which you refer.  My biggest problem has been, when 
printing on LPM paper, the Roark curves yield the greatest visual 
density at about 80% of the greyscale and then lighten and become 
muddy on up to 100%.  I can partially fix this by using the Transfer 
function in Photo Shop's Print Setup screen.  But, without a 
densitometer and hours of free time, I still don't have a good linear 
response, especially in the dark end of the range.

I fear that the 980 is an orphan printer with little support in the 
quadtone pigment printing community.  I will definitely replace mine 
someday.  But if your post brings some useful information out of the 
woodwork, I might reconsider.

Kiefer Elliott
Vancouver, Canada



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "ccolbertbw" 
<ccolbert@u...> wrote:
> Hi all.
> I bought a set of MIS VM quadtones before checking in detail which 
workflow 
> to use. Appears that there is no workflow for the Epson 980 for 
these inks on 
> the MIS site. I am using the latest 980 Epson driver on PC. Doesn't 
seem to 
> have the halftone option.
> 
> I started with the Roark 1160 workflow using EAM paper. A  5% 
increment 
> step wedge looks reasonable although perhaps the 95% and 100% are a 
bit 
> close. However, I can see darkish dots in the 5% easily without a 
loupe. 
> Interestingly, all but the 90-100% look grainy. Almost like each 
density is 
> marbled.  The nozzle check looks fine. This is at 1440 and set for 
the Matte 
> paper per the workflow. Going to 2880 helps a bit but not much in 
the overall 
> look. The resulting prints have an obvious inkjet print look to 
them because of 
> the coarseness.
> 
> Finally, the question. Is this coarseness what I should expect from 
this printer/
> ink combination?  I recently saw some prints in a show that were 
labeled 
> carbon pigment digital that looked like platinum prints. They were 
very warm, 
> but subtle and had a delicate glow. Far from the inkjet look I am 
getting now.
> 
> Costa Colbert