Digital BW, The Print

Hi All,


I have been reading this forum for a while now.   I was keenly interested in the chemical B/W print process, and really enjoyed producing nice looking prints,  at least they were nice looking to me!!   However, family life precludes long periods spent in a dark smelly room!....   So I became very interested in Quad tone printing.

My first step, was with an Epson 830 U printer and printing using Colour Monochrome.   Terrible results, gave up..

Then I read about Black only.   This worked very well,  however I found the Epson Black ink in the 830U had a green tinge to it.   I don't like green people so I put that one on hold.  I was very impressed with the blackness of the blacks. And in fact I rather liked the dots, not sure why but it seemed to make some images look cleaner....

I then read about the Quad Tone printing.  After a lot of surfing I decided on the MIS inks as being the most affordable entry into this. So I went out and bought a new Epson 1160, and imported a set of MIS UT-FSN + Eboni black inks from MIS in the USA.

Wow - Really impressed with the tonal range of these inks, and after a lot of playing with curves etc, I think I am beginning to understand how it all works... I've now printed a couple of 100 A4 images and run through a couple of sets of cartridges.

Only problem I have not been able to fix is that the blackest black on the UT-FSN is not as black as the Black Only Epson ink. 

I only print on Epson Enhanced Matte (to reduce any variables until I have mastered this thing), and have tried various colour Quad tone curves.  I use Picture Window Pro to apply the curves,  I have Photoshop as well but Picture Window Pro is easier for me.  The way I print is as follows

1.  In Picture Window Pro, I play with the image until I am happy with it in 16 bit grey scale.
2.  I convert it to 48bit colour
3.  Apply one of the MIS curves
4.  Print to 1160 using No Colour adjustment in the driver - 1440 DPI.

So Is this normal,  is the UT-FSN eboni black not as black as a Epson Black ink Black....?

I'd really appreciate any comments!

p.s   As a side note, I found some after market InkMate (Korean) black ink.  I have tried this in the 830u, and this has removed the green tinge, the images look really black inside and outdoors. 

Thanks
Stuart Goggin
Melbourne Australia