Digital BW, The Print

Friday, December 12, 2003, 9:22:43 PM, you wrote:

DH> Everyone,

DH> I've just spent the evening printing two 6x9 prints of
DH> the same image for a list member - one via piezography
DH> driver and one via Black Only.  

DH> As it has been a while since I have printed actual
DH> side by side comparisons of images created with
DH> differing workflows, I was interested to see the
DH> results as I have been doing this for a while now.  

DH> The first image was printed via the  piezography/R9
DH> driver with eboni in the black position.  The results
DH> were as good as many of us have come to expect from
DH> this software - it was a nice smooth image with
DH> excellent quality.  But, it was terribly slow, yada
DH> yada...

DH> The second print using Eboni black only truly suprised
DH> me.  Before today I had never realized that you can
DH> print at 2880 dpi with the 1280 in black only mode (I
DH> have always used the default heavyweight matte setting
DH> that only allows a 1440 setting).  So, I just switched
DH> the paper setting to "photo paper" and was allowed to
DH> choose the 2880 dpi setting.  The added resolution
DH> completely smoothed out the ramp.  Sure the 5% still
DH> looks "dotty" but the warm tone of the Eboni combined
DH> with the luminosity of BO was quite remarkable, and I
DH> really don't care much about the dots - besides this
DH> has a rich photogravure feel that is just amazing.

DH> This may be old news, but I am just tickled at the
DH> quality that can be achieved by "returning to the
DH> basics."

DH> When showing the images to an "uninformed" viewer,
DH> they picked the BO as superior - and never mentioned
DH> the dots.  So, when I look back on the hundreds of
DH> dollars spent in specialized software and expensive
DH> inks getting me here...

DH> Don

Don,

I studied all the workflows here and elsewhere for about a year and
then got myself an 1160 and MIS FS-N inks and a CIS.  Using Randall
cureves I got myself some very nice prints.  Occasionally a bit of
banding and sometimes it seemed some inconsistency with the richness
of the black, but overall very nice.  I did later have some issues in
that the FS-N warmed up a bit much especially from where it started
but that was another issue.  I then started trying BO using Clayton
Jone's suggestions.  And now I've doing it with Eboni carts.  I too
share you enthusiasm and am in awe at the comparisons to my earlier
1160 prints.  I post a few proofs at work of my street photography and
people at work are much more inclined towards the BO prints compared
to my 1160 prints.  Dots?  Yeah, they are there if you want to look
for them.

-- 
Best regards,
 Richard                            mailto:richard@...