Digital BW, The Print

Mike,

At the moment I just have UC inks in my 2200 so I can't tell you
what I'd get with different inks and QTR on the 2200.

I think the primary reason for the smooth 1160 is just simply that
it has a lighter gray than the UT7 or UT2 inkset.  The effect of a
lighter gray is beneficial in two ways.  First the dots are simply
lighter and even in a field of white they are less obvious. Second,
for a given shade on the paper, you will be using more dots and
therefore they fill in the spaces more.

I've looked at the scan a little more and it appears that there are
also a fair amount of the sepia ink dots -- yellow slot.  I think the
print was made with the "default" method where the Epson driver
mixes all the inks to produce what it thinks is neutral.  There's a
good possibility that using the PS curves it would be smoother.

Roy

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "mike_nunan" 
<mike.nunan@c...> wrote:
> Hi Roy,
> 
> Maybe it is a driver issue between those two. Are you set up to do a 
> QTR UT print on the 2200? That would settle it I guess.
> 
> Also, what do you think it is about the 1160/VM combination that 
> makes it so smooth? VM only has black and three grey shades, same as 
> UT, right?
> 
> -= mike =-
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Roy Harrington" 
> <roy@h...> wrote:
> > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "mike_nunan" 
> > <mike.nunan@c...> wrote:
> > > I'm mainly hoping Roy and Paul can shed some light on this, but 
> if 
> > > anyone else wants to jump in, please feel free.  I've been 
> looking at 
> > > Roy's very interesting scans of prints, posted in the 
> thread "Dots 
> > > and More Dots". I must admit, I'm slightly surprised by the 
> > > differences. On my monitor, the images measure 4"x4", so that's a 
> 16x 
> > > enlargement factor relative to the physical print. That means 
> that 
> > > viewing the screen from 8ft away is like looking at the print 
> itself 
> > > from 6", which is about as close as I can focus with my naked eye.
> > > 
> > > What I'm surprised by is the fact that there is such a difference 
> in 
> > > visible dot between the 2200/UT7 print and the 1270/UT2+1160/VM 
> > > prints, especially against the UT2 prints as I thought the inkset 
> > > used a very similar set of grey tones to UT7. If anything, I 
> would've 
> > > expected the 2200 print to be finer due to the smaller drop size, 
> but 
> > > instead the reverse is true. The difference is clear at an 
> effective 
> > > 6in viewing distance and still noticeable at 8-12in, so this 
> would 
> > > definitely be a concern to me in a real print. Any idea what 
> gives?
> > > 
> > > TIA
> > > 
> > > -= mike =-
> > 
> > Hi Mike,
> > 
> > I was also a little surprised at that difference as well.  I think 
> the
> > dotsizes of both printers is advertized as 4 picoliter so that 
> > shouldn't be a factor.   I don't know if there's any difference in 
> the
> > densities of the inks in the two sets.  Maybe Paul can address that.
> > That pretty much leaves the driver as the only signiicant
> > difference.  The 1270 print was done with QTR with curves I made.
> > The 2200 print was done using the Epson driver so its a little
> > hard to say what ink is used where.  My guess is that it uses one of
> > the darker inks (maybe the LK) at a lighter gray.
> > 
> > Roy