Digital BW, The Print

For: John Tarnoff

>   I've seen all the
> comments on IP and respect the judgment of all concerned (you
> included).  As I said: maybe I'm a purist, and maybe that's not
> necessarily a good thing.  It would be nice if I could eval. the IP
> software, but haven't found a way to do so (as they don't seem to
> offer a trial).  If there's a real one-stop-shop solution, that's
> obviously great.

I understand that if you buy IP you can return it within 30 days. To 
answer your original question or, to be more precise, your original 
contention that you don't think that any printer printing B&W with 
color inks can produce a neutral print: IP is spot-on neutral, and the 
TintPicker allows subtle "toning", say, from warm to selenium tone. On 
the other hand, if you use the Epson driver, even with very good 
profiles, it's virtually impossible to get a really neutral print, 
without a color cast in some tones. But some people who want to print 
strongly toned prints, such a sepia tone, have been happy using the 
Epson driver with the Bill Atkinson profiles, for example.


> Do you find that you're getting the same richness in your blacks that
> you would expect from a carbon, or, for that matter, from a silver
> gelatin print?

I don't believe any inkjet printer produces the rich blacks that are 
possible with a silver gelatin print, particularly on matte paper. If 
by "carbon" print you mean quad inks like Piezography, then, yes, the 
UC inks with IP can match the blacks. There is a lot of information in 
the archives on Dmax measurement with different papers and inks, but it 
may be difficult to get at.

--Mitch/Potomac, MD