Digital BW, The Print

Carl,

I have been using some of the same Lyson inks in a 7000 for some time. 
I tried blending the neutral and the warm (but not the cool)
on various Lyson papers, including the Darkroom Gloss. 
That paper is absolutely stunning in its ability to hold a good
black. Its surface is also by far the closest to a real darkroom 
air-dried fiber paper I have ever seen in digital bw.

Metamerism remains an issue, but with a careful blend you can get a decent
print that shifts within an acceptable range. I have shown the results
to many people to get a sense of their response. Some rejected it outright, some
had no problem with it under daylight. You can blend for a given light source
to get decent results, but you can't have one blend for all lights. 

I looked at the spectral distribution and there was a significant spike at the red end
and another bump at the blue/purple end with a dip in the yellow/green area. 
This accounts for these effects, but this inkset offers no way to smooth out
the bumps when you only blend warm and neutral.

It may be that the solution (currently considered) is to use CMY inks from the
Lysonic set and the grays from the neutral quads to achieve a better color.
To this end Lyson will also be selling their own version of IJC/OPM with 
related profiles. See the Bowhaus release today:
http://www.bowhaus.com/inkjetcontrol/

The Darkroom Gloss paper is such an amazing paper that I think it's worth
ironing out these problems. And, frankly, those who like black-only prints
may have a field day with this paper. It won't take Ultrachromes, so it will
have to be one of the Lyson blacks. But the black can get to be so
heavy that  I had to dial back the dmax when I was profiling it with IJC.
It would exceed 3.0...   and I had to cut it down to 2.4 - 2.7. I don't know
anything else in the market that will do that.
The 4000 with the much finer dither may be just the ticket for this.

Keep in mind that prints made on that paper are not water-resistant,
but on the plus side, the paper coating is of the swellable polymer kind
that protects the dyes better. I have no longevity data on this yet. Lyson
dyes have had a solid reputation for stability and were the ones used
in the original Iris bw prints (aka giclee). Don't know how they fare next
to the current champs (PT, UC, UT). 


Antonis





--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Carl Schofield <scho@m...> 
wrote:
> I received a set of sample prints from Lyson (GB) that were made using  
> an Epson 2100 and Lyson's QuadBlack Toneable inkset. 

>.........snip..........>


> Based on earlier comments, I understand that there may be a different  
> inkset or better behavior with this one on Darkroom Gloss when used  
> with a RIP so I look forward to hearing more about these developments.