Digital BW, The Print

Jim -

I mentioned in a reply to another of your queries that I am using the 
C84/EZ setup.  Frankly, I do the same things to prepare an image for 
printing with that combination that I do to prepare an image to print on my 
Canon S9000 with Lyson Quad Black inks - crop, adjust levels for brightness 
range, desaturate and adjust tonal balance using Convert BW Pro, and 
eventually print using QImage.  In the MIS ink world, though, several of 
their monochrome ink sets are variable tone, in that you can control the 
tone of the print (from cool to warm) by applying appropriate curves to the 
image after "processing" and just before printing.  You can't do that with 
the EZ inks - they is what they is, so you just send an image to the 
printer and let 'er rip (no pun intended.)  In that sense it's simpler than 
using other MIS inks.

So what you give up is the ability to vary the tone of a particular 
image.  Be aware, though, that you do have quite a bit of control over the 
warmth of the ink set itself - you just get the same tone for all your 
prints once you've settled on the tone you want.  The EZ ink family 
actually has four different inks, two of which are used in the printer at a 
time.  There are two different blacks, one for matte papers (Eboni) and one 
for glossy papers (Photo Black, I think it's called - I've never used 
it.)  Then there are two gray inks, neutral and warm.  The C, M and Y 
cartridges all have the same density of gray ink - the density of the image 
is dependent on how heavily the gray is laid down.  In the simplest 
application, all of the color ink positions have the same gray ink in them 
(either neutral or warm,) while the black position has the appropriate 
black (apparently the gray inks will work on both matte and glossy 
surfaces.)  However, Paul Roark, who developed (or at least helped to 
develop) the EZ inks has indicated that you can actually vary the tone of 
the final print between neutral and warm by using warm ink in one or more 
of the gray positions.  Warm in the Y position adds just a bit of 
warmth.  Warm in the M position (with neutral in C and Y) is a bit warmer, 
while warm in M and Y is warmer still. ( I didn't try warm in the C 
position only.)  None of these combinations is nearly as warm as warm ink 
in all three, C, M and Y, positions.

I bought two sets of EZ cartridges for the C84 and experimented with this 
mix and match process.  I found the all-warm setup to be too warm for my 
tastes, but after a little experimenting decided that the tone I liked best 
(on Epson Enhanced Matte paper) was neutral C and Y with warm M, and I have 
set up a CIS this way.  Note though that this is very paper dependent.  The 
same image printed on Ilford Smooth Heavyweight Matte paper looks warmer 
(and slightly redder) than on Ilford Enhanced Matte, although part of that 
may be due to the fact that the Ilford paper is itself much whiter than the 
Epson.

I've had a lot of fun experimenting with the C84/EZ combination.  The C84 
is still a bargain printer, and might get to be even more so if the C86 is 
supposed to be a replacement for it.  Refilling MIS cartridges makes for 
cheap printing, and is a pretty simple process (although there is the need 
to reset the computer chip on the cartridge - itself a pretty simple step 
but something you don't think about with a Canon) since they're the same 
sponge-in-front/reservoir-in-back layout as the Canon cartridges.  The 
refilling will be even simpler when the transparent virgin empties actually 
arrive (promised "real soon now" on their site) because you'll be able to 
see when you're getting near full, and they'll have a built in hole for a 
stopper (I use a 2x56 brass screw to seal the hole I drilled in the 
cartridges I played with.)  With the opaque cartridges you fill the 
reservoir until it overflows, which is a slightly messy process.  Filling 
your own cartridges would also allow fairly simple variation in tone by 
just switching a neutral or warm cartridge or two - the ink path from 
cartridge to print head seems to be very short, so there wouldn't be a lot 
of ink to purge after a cartridge switch.

Another attraction of the C84/EZ combination is the ability to experiment 
with black-only printing.  You give up a bit of resolution but get back 
quite a bit of speed, and with Eboni ink on Epson Enhanced Matte I have 
gotten some simply stunning tonalities out of certain images.  It's easy to 
play with - just select black only in the print driver.  (Here again, 
though, image tone is affected by paper choice - Epson Enhanced Matte is 
substantially warmer, for example, than Legion Matte, which itself is a bit 
warmer than Ilford Heavyweight Matte.)

So if you find yourself tempted by the C84, I'd say give it a try.  I 
suspect you'll like it, and if you don't you can probably sell it on Ebay 
for at least half what you paid for it (keep the box and packing materials, 
just in case it doesn't work out  ;-)

Cheers,
Kip

At 9/1/2004 03:59 AM +0000, you wrote:
>They say you can't get something for nothing, so if using the MIS EZ
>Ultratones in an Epson C84 means you don't have to use photoshop
>curves, don't have to use a RIP, don't have to do
>anything "special," what would I be giving up for all this ease?
>Sounds too good to be true, so the cynic in me (and chasing the B&W
>printing grail does tend to bring that out in us), what letdown am I
>in for? [For background, I'm an experienced wet darkroom guy. I use
>Monaco EZ color to get reasonably neutral B&W prints out of a Canon
>s900 on a variety of papers (not easy and not consistently either).
>And I'm a cheapskate, so saying "Buy a 2200" won't work on me.] I
>like the color I get from my Canon, so I'm looking to add a
>dedicated B&W printer to the mix.
>Thanks,