Digital BW, The Print

Hi,

New to this very active list. You guys are cool.

Been experimenting with MIS quads on my old 700, and finding blacks very
mushy vs my 1270 or even 700 with OEM inks. Test pattern (cleaning
confirmation) w/ MIS shows nothing in the second slot (dark cyan position),
on two different cartridges. I can pop in the OEM inks and clean and all is
well. Is this normal?

I run 1270 from a G4 and 700 from an old G3 PowerBook for now, same OS, same
Photoshop, same color mgmt settings (none for testing). I'd forgotten how
fussy this puppy is next to 1270, but the MIS black problem persists when
I've fixed everything else.

In addition to proven grayscale Photoshop files, I'm comparing an
Illustrator 8 step pattern of 100/90/80% black etc, on both color and
black-only via the Epson driver (Photo Paper setting on Epson Matte Paper
Heavyweight - 700 driver doesn't give many choices). MIS black compares well
with 80-85% in Epson, either black-only or color, both printers (black-only
on 700 is weird; I'm ignoring it... ever push T-max 400?).

If it weren't for the metamerism, I'd just run the 1270 way desaturated and
wait till I can get/convert a pigment printer for clients (next year).

Surely others have been through this before? Any thoughts are welcome. I'm a
Mac/graphics/photo geek. Throw it at me. Would a scan help?


Thanks,
Nancy Raymond
Vexed in Vista, Calif.