Digital BW, The Print

Hello All,
 
I am new on this forum so I don't understand the many abbreviations 
on the post. For example what means BO or QTR  (Quad tone rip ?) ?
I have a 4000 pro and cannot afford to dedicate it to B&W, so I am 
using Ultrachrome inks, on H.William Tuner I have some very nice 
monochrome result but I guess it could be better. So I was very 
surprised to see you mentioned the same in your post.
I guess there is a way to obtain better result just by choosing 
appropriate settings both in Photoshop and the Epson driver.
If you choose B&W setting the driver switch to Epson gamma 1.8 or 2.2 
and any ICC profil is cancel. I you choose Colour I never manage to 
get any real B&W print, always having some disturbing colour tones.
I am waiting for a Monaco Ez system and hope to be able to make good 
B&W profil with it.
 
Something else with the 4000, the driver ask you to choose a paper 
type but propose only Epson type, for example "photo glossy premium 
250" and when you are not using Epson papers you have to try them all 
to find the right one for the particular paper you are using, this 
setting give great differences for the same paper.
Funny enough some of these settings are not usable, all "glossy" 
settings for example are not accepted, the printer goes on error.
 
I believe some of you went through these and if they could give their 
comments, they would be welcome.
 
Michel




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "john dean" 
<deanwork2003@y...> wrote:
> We've all been there at one time or another. I've used all the 
color and quad tone inksets ( 
> both Lyson's for 4 years ) except Paul's new MIS pigments, and my 
opinion is as follows.
> 
> For the very highest quality monochrome output I would choose 
either Cone Piezzotone 
> carbon pigments or Paul Roarks UT carbon pigment. You can use Quad 
Tone Rip if you 
> want on these but it is not necessary for outstanding monochrome 
output. These inksets 
> represent the state of the art.
> 
> But, for simpliciity and if you need to also do color output from 
your pigment printer, the 
> previous post about the new Epson 4000 is probably the best choice 
as long as the 17" 
> width size works for you. If you go this route, and it is a very 
good route, be sure you have 
> a custom profile made for you paper to linearize the color out for 
clean black and white's 
> without metamerism. If you choose to use Roy Harrington's QTR rip 
you can produce first 
> class monochrome work with any of these inksets, with no color 
shift at all under varying 
> light sources. Personally this is the method that probably makes 
the most sense for 
> simplicity and economic considerations.  You can also tone the 
monochrome prints using 
> QTR within that driver.
> 
> If you do your homework all of these systems can produce beautiful 
black and white 
> output. I personally use two methods now after leaving the Lyson 
products because of 
> metamerism issues. Piezzography and black only printing using the 
Epson 10K. When 
> using black only output I convert the file to greyscale and use 
grey 1.8 as a profile. I just 
> did a show for the Atlanta airport using this method and they were 
beautifully rich. 
> However when doing BO output it is very important to use a slightly 
textured paper to hide 
> any dithering, I favor Somerset Velvet and Hahnemuhle William 
Turner. I have also had hit 
> and miss results from Enhanced Matte and H. Photo Rag . The big 
problem with BO 
> printing is the lack of a light black and medium light black to 
fill in those subtle highlight 
> areas. Compare this with the best Quad inks and you will quickly 
notice the difference, 
> especially in smaller prints of very subtle quality. BO printing on 
the smaller printers can 
> be abismal though. The 10K lets you get away with it on many 
projects because of the 
> huge head and good driver.
> 
> To get simple with all this, Ultrachrome inks on the 4000 or 7600 
can do very fine 
> monochrome work if it is set up right. This is the method that Nash 
Editions uses. There is 
> always someone to help you in that direction. For the top of the 
line black and white 
> output Quad Carbon pigments by MIS or Cone are the very finest 
products out there.
> 
> john dean