Digital BW, The Print

Hi all,

This is my first post here so treat me gently ;o)

I've been researching the world of dedicated B&W printing for a 
little while now, getting ready to take the plunge with (almost 
definitely) a second 2100 to sit alongside my existing unit, which 
I'll keep for colour use. I've sifted through a lot of the discussion 
that has gone on here, and I think I've got a pretty good handle on 
most of the issues. I've also swapped a bit of direct email with Paul 
Roark which has been very informative in getting to grips with the 
finer points of UT7 (thanks Paul!)

I've got one question to ask now, one that springs to mind after 
reading Steve M's recent thread about using quadtone inks in a 7000. 
He implies that if you want "dotless" printing, then you want a true 
quadtone inkset. It seems logical enough that having a fine gradation 
of different ink shades would help hide the dots, but what I don't 
understand is why it would be much different for say UT7 using Paul's 
workflow. If you don't use the cold and sepia toners, then you still 
have pure black plus two shades of grey to work with -- essentially 
a "tritone" pure carbon inkset. Why should that be noticeably more 
dotty than a quadtone? Or is it more to do with the effect of the 
RIP? But in that case, why doesn't QTR give similar results?

Yours confused,

Mike Nunan