Digital BW, The Print

Hello Mark,

>if you thinking about an epson 2200 and don't have the budget for 
>an expensive RIP and find that many people don't see BO prints as 
>"photographic" and you can't live with the epson driver's metamorism 
>you made the wrong choice in a printer.  

Good point.


>I put more importance on subtle tones than sharpness.  A BO 2200 
>print is probably sharper than a 1160 quadtone...

True, there's more than sharpness that counts.  The reason I chose the
2200 over the 1280 is because of the Septone system.  For my taste, it
produces the best quality, truly dotless continuous tone
photographic-looking inkjet prints I've seen (with tone color and
contrast curve control).  If anything convinces me to move from BO it
will be that.  I'd rather stick with luminous BO than have those
opaque looking prints the other quad/hex systems produce (they just
look dull to me), and I don't want a RIP system that uses color inks
(I don't have confidence in their stability and they are dotty). 

Septones are truly dotless and don't have that opaque look, and the
ink is proving to be extremely stable (I have an on-going window sill
test, now at 87 days).  So I'm just in a wait-and-see mode for now to
see what early users say about it.  As for the BO sharpness, once I
got the 2200 I was blown away by the degree of difference in
resolution compared to the 870/1440 prints.  It was more than I
expected, having seen some 1280/2880 things.  So I'm delighted to have
even better BO prints.  I'll be real curious to see some from those
new C series Epsons with 1.5 pl droplets.


>not trying to slam anyone's work... just didn't work for me.

Understood.  My original post was because someone said they were
interested in trying it and someone else replied with a discouraging
remark to the effect that BO gives poor gradients, and then went on to
say he uses a 1200.  I just felt that it deserved a response to
clarify the issue.  I don't think anyone can get a good BO print from
a 1200.  That would be like someone saying "Don't bother trying Tmax
100 film because it gives poor results, and by the way, I use a
Diana".


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm