Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "ccolbertbw"
<ccolbert@u...> wrote:
> I find it hard to believe that "mixing" the colors in the bottle
requires so much less color 
> pigment than separately applied dots that it has a differential
effect on longevity...

Let me add to the confusion. There was information some time ago,
possibly from John Nollendorfs, that two inks mixed in solution and
printed vrs the same two colors mixed "on paper" as separate dots,
would in fact have different longevity. My suspicion is that those
results would be different for different kinds of inks and nothing
definitive can be concluded about all ink mixed as such.
There is a pure carbon quad set, the Piezography Carbon Sepia set.
Bill Bergh had it specifically made with no color pigments. Cone's own
published RIT fade tests show that, much to everyone's suprise, the
tinted sets lasted longer.
Regarding Clayton's Septone fade test, MIS statements about pigment
quantity, etc., experience has shown me that we have NO idea what's in
anything we buy to an exact degree. Even if I naiveley thought these
people were in 100% disclosure, I don't think even they know
everything, they don't make the stuff, only contract it.
Who knows exactly what's in the Septone and Eboni (isn't that a
magazine? No, maybe it's carbon from hardwood forests) inks that
contributed to Clayton's results.
It would be nice to draw some general conclusions to live by, but
exceptions will come along and blow almost any of them. Only specific
conclusions from specific tests is really meaningful.
Like Clayton I'm suspicious of differential fade on mono images from
color inks. But only a mono fade test will tell the tale. Unlike Roy I
think quads are visually more photographic than other methods, and
don't become less relevant with smaller dots, only even more stunning.
But hey, I have to cling to a little turf <G>
I realize I only muddied the water, but thought some of that might be
of interest.
T