Digital BW, The Print

James,

>... PiezographyICC software ... 1160 ....

>I must say that my first impressions are very positive.

Good, I'm glad to see the new approach works.  I congratulate Jon Cone and
his team.  

I suspect the UT-2 inks will also allow ICCs and some color profiling
software to control them.  I'm not inclined to undertake that task, but I
suspect those with the equipment & software could make an interesting
variable-tone system with the approach.

>... microbanding I have always had is gone,

This is one reason I quit Piezo.  I had less banding with the Epson driver.

>replaced by an all but invisible dither pattern ...

I still used a partitioning approach to the Piezo inks, but the 1160 is
really good enough that a straight driver print with "No Color Adjustment"
makes a very nice print.  As a compromise, I have what a call a "mild" curve
that puts more light ink in the highlights and holds back the black, but
it's not a radical partitioning -- which is the cause of lots of trouble
with the older B&W approaches.

I'll be curious how the old 3000 does with the ICC approach.  I can't
imagine people are going to be happy with the dots, but maybe I've
underestimated the extent of control Jon can get with ICCs.

>... my old images are too light ...

My 1160 prints the Piezo/FS inks with a 50% density of 0.61.  With just the
Epson driver set to "No Color Adjustment" the new UT-FSN (Piezo-compatible
neutral/"selenium" inkset) prints with a 50% density of 0.49 (and a very
good ramp). 

(I don't think MIS has put the UT-FSN inkset on its web page.)

> it is great to be able to work in Photoshop while my image is printing.

This was another reason I quit using my Piezo software.

>... the max density definitely seems blacker.

Yep, this is another reason I quit the software.  It "under-prints" the
black with some of the "color" (gray) inks.  In older systems this was felt
to give smoother transitions and blacks, but with modern Epson printers it
just lowers the dmax.

Now if the system just had RC paper compatibility (read UT-FSN) and tone
controls (read UT-2)... 

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com