Digital BW, The Print

What Peter Nelson calls "writing 5 lines of code" is an 
underestimation of the problem in my opinion.

First of all there has been a lot of work done in 
dithering/weaving development for Gimp-print to get the same (or 
maybe a better quality in some cases) than the Epson driver 
delivers.  Lots of RIPs around that don't have it as good. So it 
may not be that easy to get better dithering for a given printer 
model.

Secondly the number of nozzles on the 4000 (single array head 
also) if compared to the 2100 / 2200 is much higher too. It most 
likely means another speed sacrifice if you want a similar print 
quality.

Third, the wide format pro models with carts separated from the 
head(s) have always had a more consistent droplet size and an 
overall more consistent print quality.That's also getting better 
per generation. In time, between printers and between heads. The 
nice results with the Atkinson profiles on the individual 
9600/7600 show that the printers are very consistent. I haven't 
seen similar comments on the 2100/2200.

Printer heads wear in time. To compare  one should start with 
equally aged printers, in practice both should be new.

Ernst