Digital BW, The Print

> One brief comment though, I've seen Steve Meyers doing beautiful
> blends with the various Cone sets with 6 ink 7000 and 9000, and these
> are quads. If one gets a handle on what part of the scale is most
> effective to bring options to, and narrows their area of interest
> rather than attempting to have every conceivable mix available, AND
> stays creative, it's a wonderful world.


Agreed. In fact, my own 9500 is loaded with 2 flavors of Piezotones: Sepia and 
Warmtones with a common Museum Black and cyan-position.  Granted, I could have 
gone out to Cool or Neutral for a bigger range of blends - but same idea.


I'm talking out of my hat here, and need to take a
> better look at IJC. My assumption was that you could assign whatever
> tank(s) you wanted to whatever part of the scale you wanted. This
> overcomes the chip problem, 
...snip...
>Lyson no doubt is looking for their own consumer friendly solution.


Consumer friendly is the key here. Not only is the bw market a small niche,
the segment within that market that can handle the complexities of profiling,
toning etc is even smaller. The chip is not an issue per se as long as a user can make
their own profiles. But in plug-n-play solutions, where perhaps the inksets have to
be marketed with canned profiles and software, obviously the ink positions
will have to be fixed. In that sense, it's nice to have the older machines (7/9000) 
where you only need to break a tab or cover a sensor and your are good to go. 


I try not to be on a
> "team", but simply use what works for me and attempt to keep focused
> on printing instead of tweaking. Also, I could change process in a
> heartbeat if I found it necessary.


Healthy attitude. I am not married to any single solution either and certainly don't
want to spend a lifetime testing and never getting to final prints!


> I am keeping my
> specific tweaks and ideas to myself, because they make what I have to
> offer unique.

Of course - just remember the much more arcane "secrets" of darkroom master
printers. They didn't have their hands tied by firmware, drivers and whatever Epson 
comes up with to protect the market for OEM inks.
 Ah... the analogue world of bw printing.....  not. : - )



Antonis