Digital BW, The Print

Fellow perfectionists:

I have been doing a lot of research lately on inksets and workflows:
My current setup is a 7600 with UT7 inks. I can print to this with the 
Epson Driver alone or with Roark or Schawb curves.

The Epson Driver option I find to have far too much visible screening 
in the highlights.

The Roark and Schawb curves are better, but I still find them to be too 
"coarse" in the highlights.

Additionally, I have experimented with QTR to create my own partitioned 
inksets, warm and cool and mix between them.

The UT7 set consists of:

Black Position - Eboni Black
Cyan Position - Dark Gray
Magenta Position Cool Toner
Yellow Position Sepia Toner
Light Cyan Position - Light Gray
Light Magenta Position - Light Cool Toner
Light Black Position - Custom Light Black

To my eye the Eboni Black, Cool Toner and Light Cool Toner make a good 
3 partition ramp
I created a "profile" partitioning these three which produces good but 
very cool prints.

Secondarily I made a "profile" consisting of Eboni Black, Dark Gray and 
Light Gray.

Printing by mixing these profiles creates a nice Selenium tone, however 
at almost exactly 20% tone there is a graininess where the dot pattern 
becomes visible.

Prior to getting this printer I was using UT inks on a 2200. That 
inkset consists of 4 grey inks of similar hue and both a warm and a 
cool toner. I definitely prefer the prints I was getting with this set. 
I assume this is because I had four graduated grey inks partition, more 
effectively hiding the highlight dots.

The Light Black "Custom Light Black" ink in the UT7 inkset doesn't 
really help me as it's density is identical to the other light grey 
options. I seem to need a "very light grey" ink.

Any guru's out there care to comment on alternative partitioning/toning 
schemes that would yield a dotless scale, or should I just hand fill 
carts with UT inks?

James Haney

PS - I did some experimenting and found that although the esteemed Mr. 
Harrington suggests using ordered screening in the print dialog box, 
that I get smoother dot patterns using Adaptive Hybrid with no other 
side effects that I can discern.


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