Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Martin Sluka" <martinsluka@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 9:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Epson R800 as successor of the
2200/2100 for B&W?


At 12:41 -0500 10.2.2004, Editor P.O.V. Image Service wrote:
*******************************************

>I'd say that's a big MAYBE.
>
>The new UC HG inks reportedly still have metamerism issues
comparable to
>those of the 2100/2200..

I have seen the R800 of PaperWorld in Frankfurt (Germany) two
weeks ago.

They printed from the same color file Epson's sample picture (the
owl) the color and BW print outs simply by check the Grayscale in
driver setup.

There was horrible light conditions - from small pinkish halogens
to
daylight. My BW sample from 2100 printed by IP5.6 - deadly
neutral
under normal light - was pink in light areas there.

The BW printouts from R800 were 99,5 % without ANY metamerism.
Printed from colors too, as I checked by loupe.

The color check print on Hahnemuehle PhotoRag - the standard Fuji
RGB
test - was amazing - neutral grey wedges, very bright blues
without
any purple posterisation, very bright reds with many details in
saturated areas too.

Interesting was compare light areas of BW printouts from 9600
(IP5.6)
and R800 (Epson driver). Both printed from color inks too, but
the
size of drops for R800 is much more smaller than one expected and
with much more regular shape and distribution.

Martin
-- 

Martin,

With a droplet size of 1.5 picoliter the black generation can go
very far if not to 0%. Expecting that the black is Ultrachrome
warm there's blue needed to get it neutral. That blue doesn't
have to be Cyan + Magenta on the R800 but just the Blue ink. Any
sign of the dominance of black + blue in that B&W print ?

I still wonder whether it will be easy to make custom profiles
for that printer. An "RGB" printer profile for the Epson driver
will be alright, "CMYK" based RIPs will not get the best possible
from the R800. N-colour RIPs + profile creators are needed for
that task.

Ernst