Digital BW, The Print

OK I am now getting confused.  I have recently been considering a CFS from
MIS with the UltraTone inks for use with QTR.  According to the MIS CFS page
for the 2200:

<Bowhaus (Mac OS9) or Quadtone Rip (Mac OSX or Linux PC) is required for
UltraTone systems. The inks will not work with Roark workflows or Epson
driver. Carts contain, PK, K, UT-C, UT-Lc, UT-M, UT-S, UT-Y inks. PK is
photo black, K is Eboni black, C is dark gray, Lc is medium gray, M is cool
toner, S is sepia toner, Y is light gray. Profiles from full sepia to cool
and anywhere in between can be made with this inkset and either of these
print drivers. Both allow shutting off of one black or the other, so both
matte and glossy prints can be made with same inkset.>

Yet according to their inks page:

<Epson introduced their new UltraChrome color inks. We quickly followed with
our version or equivalent of these new inks. This gave us two new black
inks, a photo black and a matte black. So, with a little help(lots of help)
from Paul Roark, we made a B&W inkset that was capable of producing matte or
glossy prints with variable tones. In the process we upgraded the Epson
equivalent black to increase fade resistance out beyond 600 years. This
black we now call EBONI BLACK. It is the best black we have ever made. These
new inks are called MIS Ultra-Tone inks. They are similar to the VM inks
above, but they have greater stability and fade resistance. They use the
same Roark workflow that the VM inks use, unless otherwise stated on the
workflow page.>

Sorry to post this here but MIS has yet to reply to my email asking them
some basic questions about this and the use of the CFS.  If I am happy to
continue using QTR is there any point waiting for UT-2?

The other questions I had for MIS were in relation to a purchase of a CFS
with MIS 2200 color ink that is equivalent to the Epson Ultrachrome ink that
comes with a new 2200 printer:

I notice that the pre-filled ultra-chrome CFS seems to only be available
with the "universal black".  Is it not possible to order it with the matt
black already loaded?  I mostly use matt black/matt media.  A preloaded
system has enormous appeal because I imagine the process of loading a CFS
initially is quite finicky.

Presumably, if the matt black ink is loaded and I need to switch to Photo
Black for a glossy paper print I could simply eject the matt black CFS
cartridge and put in an OEM (non CFS) cartridge for the print in question,
leaving the other CFS cartridges in place (ie in the same manner that one
would simply swap the Epson MK and PK cartridges)?

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Steve

From: "Paul Roark" <paul.roark@...>
Reply-To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 14:12:26 -0800
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [Digital BW] Re: UT-2 Preview

John,

>> On EEM, grayscale files print 0.02 units warm with the
>>driver on the default "Color Controls," "Automatic,"
>>and the paper setting at HWM.
>> ...

>... trying to come up to speed on this UT-2 "easy BW" stuff.

The "UT-2" is the product of three projects: make an inkset that has the
full sepia to cool range, prints well from a grayscale file with "no
workflow", and handles the RC papers better.  It turned out I could do all
this with one inkset.  It is for the 1280 class printers only now, but is
aimed at the 4000. 

>All this sounds like hacks for getting the Epson driver to do
>whatever kinda tonality you're going for.

Yes, one could say that.   It's still a "quad" or dedicated B&W inkset.  As
such, it is still limited in the tones it can reach with any one set of
toners.  

However, with the UT-2 inkset the sepia toner is very simple -- 8% yellow,
8% magenta, and 84% UT-C light magenta.  As such, I think people will be
able to easily mix their own custom tones -- not only different versions of
sepia but also totally new and different custom tints.  Although I have a
"detailed" curve for sepia, it's amazing how well this inkset does with
curves that are little more than single points on the 50% spot that pull the
toner down and carbon gray up (with the cold cyan all but turned off).
Those who used to be darkroom experimenters are going to have a lot of fun
with this ability.

>For Mac users, would I be correct that I'm better off using QTR or
>IJC instead of the Epson driver ?

I don't know.  It'll be interesting to see some comparisons.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 
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