Digital BW, The Print

Over the last few years I have done quite a number of black only prints on various rag 
papers, matte papers, and other media that are in the 44"x 60" range on an Epson 10,000 
CF. Actually I've found the large prints to be much more satisfying than the smaller ones. 
Some of my large prints done this way are in the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport and have been 
sold in nice galleries, etc. It is in many cases possible to do nice work this way, and it is 
very fast on this printer. You MUST absolutely MUST start with a first class file though, like 
one from a high-end drum scanner and carefully work with its contrast curve. I print these 
in greyscale space using gamma 2.2 as a profile. 

The media you choose has a big impact on the image qualily and I've had bad rusults from 
any RC media, and very good results on Somerstet, and fabrics like silk. The color of these 
prints is excellent with 0 metamerism. However, you can run into a slight dither pattern 
corrupting the delicate tonal transitions of a file, especially when the subtleties of the 
image are in the higher end of the tonal range9you have no light greys). So, the paper you 
choose can be very important. I have found a slight textured rag paper like Somerset or 
William Turner works the best to hide this. Also defects can reflect a coarseness or grainy 
appearance in those hightlights or delicate midtones. Like I said, it always seems to be 
more of an issue for me in smaller prints than in large ones. The way you tweak your 
contast curve can make all the difference in the world.

 Finally you do not ever achieve the deep deep rich blacks that you find in a good Quad 
inkset. If you are going to use BO in a small printer like a 1280 I would coose one the new 
deeper black carbon inks like Ebony or the Cone pigments. None of these are going to 
achive anything close the the richness of a 4 channel quad print though.

John