Digital BW, The Print

The reason why I was asking is that I understand from an earlier posting by Paul Roark 
that the UT2/7 greys are basically dilutions of MIS Photo Black.  So in essence you guys 
were layering different gradations of PK to get quite startling dMax.  I went back to using 
Epson UC PK (but with the MIS UC equivalent inks for the other colours) and a relatively 
heavy load (limit 85%, boost 95%, no overlaps) PK can only produce a dMax of around 
1.95 on Epson Premium Semi-Gloss.  (Wax will raise this over 2.4 but as you say it 
changes the gloss and is also a lot of work.  I found it does a lot for bronzing also.)  I am 
surprised you got such high numbers from what is essentially MIS PK.

I have ordered some MIS PK (in CFS form so that I can simply have an 8 ink CFS and switch 
blacks as with cartridges).

I have almost had enough of spraying RC paper because I find it leaves speckles on the 
print.  It is almost impossible not to leave tell-tale marks.  I found that if the ink load is 
not too high then wax can be applied without spraying.

Of course it would be great to not have to spray or wax.  Hence coming back to the 
question of PK....


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Carl Schofield <scho@m...> 
wrote:
> Steve,
> 
> I now use the MIS UT2 inks (with Eboni K) in my Epson 1270 with QTR 
> (and IJC/OPM) profiles that exclude the Eboni K for printing on either 
> Epson Photo paper or Ilford Smooth Pearl.  The Epson Photo paper needs 
> no spraying nor waxing because there is no bronzing, but waxing will 
> increase dmax and add more gloss (I prefer the low gloss appearance 
> without wax).  Ilford Smooth Pearl has some slight residual bronzing 
> that can be eliminated with just waxing, but the wax goes on easier 
> after a preliminary spray (one coat) with PremierArt PrintShield.  I 
> was using the UT inks in my 2200 for awhile and got similar results, 
> but for now I'm back to the UC inks in the 2200 because the MIS 2200 
> carts are just too unreliable (lots of cleaning cycles are needed to 
> restore air blocked nozzles, which wastes a lot of ink and loads up the 
> ink pad).  I understand that some new 2200 carts may soon be available 
> that eliminate this problem and I may go back to using either the UT or 
> UT7 inks in the 2200 when the new carts become available.  I gave up 
> trying to use the 2200 with UC inks for printing on the RC papers 
> because of the bronzing issues caused by the light inks (LC, LM, and 
> LK).  The dmax numbers you cited below were without spraying or waxing 
> and will increase significantly with either treatment.  I don't have 
> any dmax data for silver prints.  I think that the UT inks (UT, UT2, 
> UT7) give much better performance on RC papers than the the UC inks.  
> Bronzing is less of a problem and it is easier to control tones with 
> the UT inks.
> 
> Carl
>