Digital BW, The Print

Well, it works.

I have a modified Ultra Tone inkset that can do both sepia and cool toning
with the Epson driver.  The cool toner has also been doubled in strength so
that even the warmest RC paper shadows (like Pictorico) can be cooled down.

The inks are all easily available or easy to mix.  No clear base is used.

C = MIS 2200/7600 light K
PC = MIS UT Hex yellow (the lightest gray)
M = 58% MIS Light (Photo) Magenta &
    42% MIS Light (Photo) Cyan
PM = MIS UT Hex M
Y = MIS UT sepia toner

I have draft curves that print neutral/selenium, carbon (both toners turned
off -- until 75%, where they dive to the 100% spot to turn on the black),
and sepia that is 0.25 warm -- that's a true sepia.

The curves are very easy to make, because the Epson driver does the
cross-overs.  No more roller-coasters.  (The curves are so simple that I
suspect the sliders could be re-activated and would work, but I have not
tried this.)

Because the toner is stronger, the inkset can print ice-cold, for those who
like special effect.

On RC paper 1440 shows some roughness in the shadows on close inspection,
but at 2880, it smoothes out to the point I don't think anyone would be
concerned.  I may mix a denser PC ink to see if that helps the 1440 RC
roughness.  (I'm not particularly patient with the 2880 slowness.)

At any rate, I think the concept of a dual-toner inkset in a 1280/1290
works.  The one above is a first shot, with readily-available inks that
anyone can experiment with.

I may move on to some custom mixes to refine it, but I like the idea of
using off-the-shelf inks.  It opens up the system to more alternatives.  The
different RC-compatible inks (MIS v. Epson) have shown different
characteristics on various papers.  One is not clearly better than the
other, but their bronzing and other surface characteristics differ.  So, for
a particular paper, there may be a new way to optimize the inkset for the
particular paper.

Also, different people will like different tones.  With off-the-shelf
components to make the toner, people can mix different ratios of the PM & PC
to get the shadows tone they prefer.

Have fun.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com