Digital BW, The Print

Thanks Paul for your full response.
On MIS website, I don't see that UT is available for the 870. 
Guess they could "chip" it??
re the curves- I have used the curves for 1270 and 870 (my 1270 
died recently). So I assume I could use the 1280 curves for 870. 
Yes?
Do you know what the dmax is for EEM, UT and 1270/870? 
Higher, I assume than the C82.
Didn't understand your explanation of EEM .01 warm and cool.
If you have time, could you please flesh that out a little more.
thanks,
Antara 



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul 
Roark" <paul.roark@v...> wrote:
> Antara,
> 
> >I have 870 with MIS VM, using Roark curves.. Am considering 
the
> >C82 after all the excitement here.
> >How would you compare the two?
> 
> The 870 may be the better printer.  The UT inks, however, are 
better than
> the VM inks in terms of longevity (and tones, in my view).  So, if 
the UT
> inkset ran well with the curves and in your printer, there would 
not be much
> reason to change.
> 
> The C82 is part of an effort to have a very affordable and easy 
archival B&W
> printing solution -- for anyone.  For what it is and costs, it's 
doing a
> very good job.  I'm putting the finishing touches on a neutral 
inkset now.
> 
> The weaknesses of the C82 are, first, that its dmax is a bit low.  
With the
> neutral inkset I'm seeing 1.58-9 on EEM and 1.59-60 on 
PhotoRag.
> 
> Second, of course, is that it, like the 870, cannot print larger 
than
> letter-size paper.
> 
> Third, like all monotone inksets, the tones cannot be fine-tuned 
in the same
> way the vm & UT inksets can.  And, of course, there is not 
ability to do
> split-tone printing.
> 
> In the neutral inkset for the C82 I've compromised the neutral 
tone as
> follows:  EEM is 0.01 cool, and PhotoRag is 0.01 warm at 50%.
> 
> On the other hand, the C82 has a unique trick here.  If the 
warm (UT light
> C) ink is put in the yellow spot, EEM is then 0.01 units warm.  If 
a warm
> ink cart is put in the magenta spot, EEM is then 0.04 units 
warm.  To switch
> between these, in fact, I just swapped the yellow and magenta 
position
> carts -- they are all interchangeable.  So, with 2 inks, much 
more fine
> tuning is possible on the C82 than on most monotone inksets.
> 
> The forth weakness or quirk of the C82 is that the head often 
nicks the
> bottom 3/16 inch of the paper.  So, there is sometimes if not 
often a little
> ink on the bottom right corner.
> 
> I don't know how well the existing curves work on the 870 for 
the UT inks.
> For PC users with 1270s the 1280 driver seems to work.  That 
way they can
> use the 1280 UT curves.  If that approach works for the 870 
and you, then it
> might be worth trying a UT cart.
> 
> >Also, is it possible to do the same or similar with the C80. ...
> 
> I don't know.
> 
> Paul
> http://www.PaulRoark.com