Digital BW, The Print

After a one year hiatus, I am going to try B&W printing again with 
my old stock of FS inks.  A long time ago Paul Roark recommended the 
following alternative ink to cartridge positions.  My question 
is "Has this system ever been validated?" or am I better off with 
the normal cartridge ?illing.

Thanks in advance

Jim

If you want to use FS inks with a hextone machine, you have three 
choices.
First, buy a Piezo driver. Second, buy a ColorByte ImagePrint 4 RIP 
(check
with that company first). Third, change the ink positions and 
(maybe) write
some simple curves. (Since I do not have a hextone machine, I have 
not been
able to test this and have not been able to write the curves -- 
which may
not even be necessary.)

Here is the alternative FS-Hextone-Epson-driver ink positions I 
recommend.
It is based on the following observations. First, the light inks 
tend to be
about 60% of the density of the full strength inks. Happily, the 
FS/Piezo
magenta is almost exactly 60% the density of the cyan ink. Second, 
the
current Piezo/FS ink mix is actually too light, being designed for 
the old
quad machines. As such, radical curves are needed to control it. 
These
curves leave artifacts and destroy grayscale. Thus, a darker ink mix 
should
be better.

So, the alternative FS ink mix for the Epson driver is as follows:

Black -- Use the MIS FS (or VM) black;

Cyan position -- Use FS cyan-position ink;

Light cyan position -- Use FS magenta-position ink;

Magenta position -- Use FS cyan-position ink;

Light magenta -- Use FS magenta-position ink;

Yellow -- Use FS yellow-position ink. (The FS magenta-position ink 
may work
here also. I'd test both of them.)

This proposed FS-Epson-Driver inkset can probably be controlled 
either by
mild partitioning inks or just a simple grayscale workflow. It might 
print
rather well with no workflow at all.

I think there is a very good chance that the FS inks in the above 
positions
in a 1280 or 1290 will produce the best B&W print possible, beating 
all
current workflows -- Piezo software included. I hope someone will 
give it a
try and let us know how it works.