Digital BW, The Print

Keith wrote:

>For a nice explanation of the "gloss optimizer" and how it works, try:

>http://www.photo-i.co.uk/News/Nov03/Epsondata.htm 

Epson used essentially the same ad copy when it introduced the 2000P and the
2200 -- the same drawings about more even reflection, etc.  I'm not saying
this is not an advance, but we've heard this story and seen essentially the
same drawings before.  

I'm most interested in the new color pigs.  I'd love to have a good red and
blue that I could use to tone the carbon.  I assume the third party pigment
producers will be right behind Epson with these new colors.

I'm also most interested in the apparent lack of light inks.  With a 1.5
picoliter drop size available, I guess Epson finally feels it can drop the
watered-down inks.  I think the light inks are flooding the paper with
(expensive) water and glycol, to the detriment of print quality.  I was
never fan of the FS-E ink arrangement, and I think Cone has made a mistake
in going that route with his new Piezo ink order.  The old machines need
these light inks, but as drop size has decreased and resolution increased,
the need for the light inks has decreased radically.  I'm curious to see
what the C84 can do with its 5760 resolution.

On the other hand, if there is no light black, is metamerism going to show
its ugly head more?

I also worry about what the driver is going to do to my ability to control
the inks with the Epson driver.  Without a RIP, will we be able to control
the red and blue spots?  This may be a step forward for color but a step
backward for B&W.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com