Digital BW, The Print

Maybe the tweakiness which has bothered Jim is just an artifact of 
the particular 1160 he got and all he needs is to be luckier on 
swapping it out for a new or refurbished 1280? (I assume there's no 
longer any U.S. market to speak of in 1160s.)

Consider my contrasting experience with two 1160s, one for B&W, one 
for color, both with NoMoreCarts CIS and a variety of mostly matte 
papers: the B&W one has been as straightforward to use as the color 
one: neither has ever been any trouble at all, not even when I first 
turn them on after being away with them off for weeks at a time, nor 
when I forget the backer sheet. I know from reading this list since 
before I got the 1160s that I've been luckier than some other 
dedicated-B&W-Epson subscribers. But my impression is that my 
experience is closer to the norm than Jim's is. And when I think 
about upgrading, which I do a lot, I tend to think in terms of the 
more recent Epsons rather than the HPs. (And I've decided that what 
I'd ideally like is a smaller 4000.)
--
Sam


At 8:59 PM -0800 1/12/04, JimD wrote:
>I just discovered Mike Johnston's article about these printers
>and they perform doing black and white at:
>
>http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-03-14-12.shtml
>
>Do other in this forum have any experience, knowledge, or pinions about
>these HP printers used for black and white printing?
>
>I've got an Epson 1160 that I've tried intermittently to print
>B/W with. Those endeavors have foundered on the shoals of
>clogs, step wedge printing, and endless test prints.
>
>The dedicated Epson printer for B/W approach has been too
>'tweaky' for my temperment. These days I stick to color on
>my Epson 1270. It would be great to have a solution for B/W
>that is as straight-forward as the 1270 is for color. I'm not
>averse to dedicating a printer to B/W if I can actually use it
>to make pictures.
>
>Cheers,
>JimD