Digital BW, The Print

The solution is a custom profile for your paper. All the printers cannot possibly be
manufactured EXACTLY alike, so the profiles shipped are sort of a compromise. In
color a tiny (small?) shift is un-noticable, in B&W is stands out like a sore thumb. There 
notes on these groups recommending people who will make the profile for about $40.

Or if you can afford a 4000, I highly recommend it. I am getting neutral B&W "out of the
box", after trying a couple of different color management setups. And the ink cost is a lot
lower than for a 2200.  It also comes with about $500 worth of ink, which lightens the 
blow a bit.

While ICC color management is usually considered the best, for B&W Epson recommends 
using the print driver color management. And by golly it works: using ICC with the "great" 
new 4000 profiles gave me olive midtones, and the PD gave me cool
neutral. You might try it with your 2200.

Incidentally, Epson says that the new generation of manufacturing techniques used on the
4000 makes the machines much more alike.

Scott

PS: you could also go black only, but I consider than an inferior compromise, and the
Epson black is a bit warm.



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Lynne Siler" <lhsiler@b...> 
wrote:
> I tried using a Epson 1270 with Lyson quad blacks last year, and the prints 
> started fading within months! So I happily bought the 2200 and am happy for 
> the most part, but cannot seem to get consistent results when printing black 
> and white images. I've thought about buying  another 2200 and looking into 
> 3rd party inks again, but after getting burned by the  Lyson inks I'm not sure 
> where to go with this. What are most of you doing for nice B&W prints?  I'm 
> using epson velvet for most prints and print mostly portraits.
> 
> Thanks,
> Lynne Siler