Digital BW, The Print

> From: Mike Botelho [mailto:mfractl@...]
>
> Since the use of colored inks seems to be a source of problems when
> printing B&W with the Ultrachromes, why not just use the Light Black
> to provide the lighter tonalities instead?  I know that 'black only'
> printing results in noticable dots that some find objectionable and
> that the use of colored inks eliminates this, but wouldn't the use of
> the Light Black ink eliminate this also?  In fact, isn't that why the
> Ultrachrome printers have a Light Black cartridge?  So, I'm
> wondering, am I missing something here?  Does the inclusion of
> colored ink somehow produce smoother gradations than simply using the
> lighter tones produced by the Light Black ink?

Unfortunately, the black-only mode doesn't use the light black. Dumb. That's
the sort of thing they could easily fix with a driver update. What I'd like
to see is a driver with a B&W setting that uses black and light black ink,
with a slider that lets you mix in a tiny amount of color to achieve a
certain tint, but not enough to cause metamerism.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@...