Digital BW, The Print

I've been using the Quad Blacks for over a year and have been quite 
satisfied with them in both an Epson 860 and Canon S9000 (note - these 
printers take different inks, but the results are the same.)  I also played 
around a bit with the Lyson Small Gamut inks, but decided I could be 
satisfied with the Quad Black tone and not have to mess with the 
tone-setting step of the SG inks.  I use the ICM profiles offered by Lyson 
for both glossy and matte papers, as appropriate, and print using 
QImage.  I use Legion Photo Matte, and Ilford Classic Gloss and Pearl for 
the shinier surfaces.  The ink takes a while to dry on the Ilford papers, 
but I just hang them up by a corner with a clothespin on a line in my old 
darkroom, and let them dry overnight just like I used to do with chemical 
prints.  The matte paper seems to absorb the ink much more readily, 
although I usually hang the matte prints up for a while as well just to let 
as much moisture as possible get out of the paper before I stack things 
up.  There is a slight change in tone when carrying a print between 
incandescent and daylight, but without taking along a chemical print for 
reference I don't see the change myself.

I load my own cartridges for the Canon with bulk ink that I get from 
Marrutt, Ltd., in England (Small Gamut is also available in bulk, and I 
understand that both are now available in bulk in the US as well) using 
virgin empty cartridges and syringes from Inkjet Goodies..  The cost works 
out to around $2/cartridge if you pitch the cartridge after 10 reloads, 
which is about how many you get out of a 4 ounce bottle of ink.  (This 
compares to about $14 each if you buy prefilled cartridges for the 
Canon.)  The reloading process is a snap after you've done about two 
cartridges - just pop out the rubber stopper, fill the reservoir with about 
8cc of ink with a syringe, put the stopper back in, and (if you're not 
going to put it right back into the printer) stick a piece of tape over the 
breather hole.  You have to rinse out the syringe, but that takes less than 
60 seconds.

Both Quad Black and Small Gamut are dye inks, and so are not supposed to 
last very long as compared to pigment inks.  However, I've had an 
unprotected print sitting in a south-facing window for 6 weeks with no 
visible line between the part that is covered and the part that isn't. 
(Print was done with the Canon printer using Lyson Quad Black on Legion 
Photo Matte paper, the print half covered by a thick (3/16") piece of solid 
cardboard and the assembly leaned against the glass of the window - the 
masking tape holding the print to the cardboard has gotten a bit gooey, but 
there's no apparent change in the print.)  No significant clog issues 
(can't even remember the last one - knock on wood) to the point where I 
don't even do the nozzle check that I used to run each time I fired up the 
printer.  I've made about 600 8x8 prints in the last couple of months, 
getting ready to bind up into books at Christmas time.  Never a clog, and 
consistently nice prints (as long as I didn't forget and leave a color 
printer profile set in QImage - I have a separate color printer, and 
printing with the Lyson Quads using a color ink profile produces some very 
ugly results.)

So on the whole I'm quite satisfied with the Lyson Quad Blacks.  If they 
are available in cartridges for your printer, I'd certainly taking a chance 
on a set and giving them a try.

Cheers,
Kip

At 10/29/2003 07:37 PM +0000, Alfred wrote:

>Anyone here has any experience with lyson inks? Pros and Cons?