Digital BW, The Print

Antonis,

Thanks for your help.  I have considered buying the IJC SW but have 
held off because I have to close OPM and re-open it after each time I 
print or it crashes and I have to re-start my MAC.  And I'm 
procrastinating whether to buy OSX in which case I might try QTR first 
before buying IJC.

But I do like your idea of selectively using UT gray.  I can see more 
smoothness with prints made with the Epson driver than with OPM and 2 
UC inks.  I just hate the color shifts and metamerism.  And I am doing 
just enough color work right now for it to be a bit of a hassle to 
switch back and forth.  

I'm curious as to how much 2200 UT ink business MIS will get with 
OPM/IJC and QTR being the only solutions available right now for the 
2200.  And both of these seem to require more advanced skills to use 
them.

At some point, I may just keep the 2200 for color and buy a 1280 for 
b/w and use UT - it seems like a simpler path.

It seems to me that if Epson could only come out with a couple more 
gray inks that could be substituted for color positions (and the 
driver modified to support it) it could potentially eliminate the need 
for anyone to use 3rd party inks on the 2200 (or on a second printer 
dedicated to b/w).  But everyone knows that'll never happen.

Thanks again,

Dave Gordon
davegordonphotography.com


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Antonis Ricos" 
<antonisphoto@y...> wrote:
> Dave,
> 
> since you are already using OPM under OS 9 you would have some 
interesting choices 
> if you also used IJC and made your own profiles.
> 
> Some of the reasons to use UT inks:
> 
> - can be available in bulk if you need a CFS
> - you can selectively use a UT gray of your choice to replace just a 
single color 
> position in the UC lineup. Useful if you like everything else but 
object to slight 
> dottiness in places where black begins, for example. Also makes it 
easier to restore 
> the printer back to color.
> - A cool toner (of the UT set) available in 2 dilutions is more 
manageable dot-wise 
> than using pure cyan and magenta from the original inks (unless of 
course you like 
> your prints the original color of UC/UT black and grays).
> 
> Reasons to keep (some of) the UC inks:
> 
> - You can push to even warmer tones by using magenta and yellow. 
This is less trivial 
> than it seems - I have made prints using extreme sepia profiles that 
I liked a lot.
> 
> 
> The nice thing about the 2200 is you can mix and match. One caveat, 
though: while 
> the Epson OEM carts have a proprietary valve that allows them to be 
removed and 
> replaced without damage, the aftermarket ones don't. If you remove 
them before they 
> are empty you pretty much give up on using the remaining ink.
> 
> 
> As for which inkset produces the deepest black and on what papers, I 
don't have my 
> own data, but I doubt there will be a significant difference. I know 
Paul has done the 
> homework; you may search the archives for that. Just keep in mind 
that IJC would give 
> you ways to maximize the capabilities of the black ink by allowing 
you to minimize 
> what other inks may also hit the deep black end of