Digital BW, The Print

Douglas,
I'm printing on an Epson 7600/9600 doing gloss with ultrachrome 
inks. I have always loved the high gloss of a Ciba print and wanted 
to get there. I purchased a copy of ImagePrint rip (ouch!) for 
printing on Epson's premium gloss paper with the UltraChromes with 
photo black ink. The prints come out gorgeous, but still display 
some bronzing and gloss differential. Also you can really zero in on 
the tints to your B&W from neutral to selenium or platinum tints.


So here was my solution...
First I printed up some BIG ones, 24x36 and took them to a local 
digital lab that did laminating. I had them do a gloss laminate so I 
could see the results. WOW! They looked just like a Cibachrome! 
Really made the blacks pop also. They used a hot laminate. I have 
done some more research and decided that there was not a big 
advantage/disadvantage to hot over cold. So I went out and purchased 
a cold laminator from Coda Inc. for $1500 (34" wide). Now I'm doing 
cold laminates on my glossy prints (I can also mount with it), and 
they do take your breath away if your into glossy. It sounds like 
you are printing smaller than me, but there are some very reasonably 
priced small laminators out there. Also the prints are near bullet 
proof with the laminate on them...you can sit your cocktails on them 
at the end of a long printing session...8-)



> hello all.....well I am still looking for a glossy paper success 
> story......I have now lowered my standards again! I dont care if a 
> print only lasts one month. I am looking for a way to get a BW 
print on 
> glossy paper, with a standard photographic look. Bronzing is not 
> tolerable. People look at a print that has bronzing and they wait 
about 
> one second and say...."did you do this on your printer or 
> something?..... What i need is to be able able to put a print in 
> someone's hand and have them think that it was "developed", and 
> therefore a "real photo"......(that is booking agent thinking by 
the 
> way)......not to be confused with a nice art print that will be 
under 
> glass, which the UT2 inks and art papers do so well. I have both a 
> epson 1280, and an epson 1200. The 1280 ihas the UT2 inks. If you 
have 
> been reading my posts, you'll remember that  I am marginally 
satisfied 
> with spraying etc....but the pigments really dont cut it for gloss 
when 
> it comes right down to it. Most everybody agrees I think. SO ...I 
also 
> have the 1200 with lyson quad black dye inks. These are a pain 
with all 
> gloss papers too it seems. Lyson claims that they work with gloss, 
but 
> no matter waht, the dark areas ALWAYS turn blue when they dry. 
That is 
> on all gloss papers ecept epson cheap photopaper, which shows 
bronzing 
> real bad with the lysons. None of the other papers show bronzing, 
just 
> the blue color at 85% dark. I have tried profiles, curves, CMYK 
curves, 
> yadda yadda yadda......Black only is out of the question on the 
1200, 
> because the dot pattern is really horrible......so I gave up on 
these 
> inks once before, and got the 1280, but still have this albatross 
of 
> gloss incompetence around my neck. ...does the R800 do gloss BW? 
It 
> seems that the 800 should be good for BO...BUT.....does it print 
on 
> gloss paper? Really really really?
> I made a print on an HP that is supposed to do great BW, but it 
looked 
> wierd to me. Not bad but weird.  Geez.....