Digital BW, The Print

Martin,

You wrote:

>From the image file I definitely prefer the Neutral FS tone over the
>Piezo ink color.

My intent is to give a neutral-tone alternative for those who prefer the
Piezo driver.  Piezo and FS are what I consider medium-warm on coated paper.
(For warmer there will be the sepia variable-tone, which I currently have no
plans to make into an FS/Piezo compatible inkset.)

>Practically the mixing sounds like it would be tough to reproduce
>accurately in small quantities. 1 to 1 or 1 to 5 is pretty easy in
>small amounts but 28 to 72 or 153 to 847 is going to require some
>good graduated cylinders and larger amounts.

I use syringes, which are limited in accuracy.  Using a good scales is the
better way.  However, syringes are cheap and easy.  And, it actually works
well enough that it's not a problem.  You'd be surprised how far off you can
be and still have a result that is close.  So, it's better if someone mixes
in fair quantity with scales, but it is not a major problem with the ratios
I've put out there.  (The lighter inks would have been if mixed direct.
That is one reason they are mixed from the cyan-position ink.)

As a practical matter, I doubt many will tackle the neutral FS mix now --
especially those on 6-ink machines.  The toners are a different matter.
That is just one ink for a quad.  The MIS VM grays work just fine with them,
as long as you don't need cool/neutral.

>Given the cost of the inks a good scale would be well worth the
>investment of a couple of hundred dollars for say an Aculab
>electronic scale.

It's the high-end way, but what I try to do is use procedures that are
available to all for virtually free.  I have yet to be so far off that an
inkset experiment was not useable.

Paul

______________


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Paul Roark"
<paul.roark@v...> wrote:
> I have slightly adjusted the formula for the neutral FS inks that I
> published here on 10/30.
>
> The FS-N3 inkset mix is as follows:
>
> 1.      Mix a dark blue toner: 1 part cyan pigs to 1 part magenta
pigs.
>
> 2.      Mix a base cyan-position ink:
>
>       (a)  Mix 28% VM or Piezo black, the remainder MIS clear base.
>             (This might be a hair too light.)
>
>       (b)  Mix the toner and 28% K, above, as follows: 1 part toner
to 5 parts
> 28% K.  This is the cyan-position ink for the cartridge and for
further
> mixing, below.
>
> 3.      Magenta position: 15.3% cyan-position ink, above, the
remainder MIS
> clear base.
>
> 4.      Yellow position:  1 part magenta-position ink, above, to 1
part
> clear base.
>
> This is just the latest mix I've done.  It must be considered a
draft
> formula that may need some fine tuning.
>
> Note that mixing with syringes (like I do) is not very accurate.
As such,
> there will be variations in the results.
>
> (MIS is not involved in this.  Whether they would pre-mix this is
probably a
> question of whether there are enough people who want it.)
>
> Frankly, I still think that the MIS VM approach is better, but for
those who
> love the Piezo driver and want neutral ink, here is a formula that
works
> fairly well.
>
> To see what the images will look like compared to a standard Piezo
print,
> the first FS-N1 print is still representative.  That neutral-tone
image was
> printed with the Piezo driver and the FS-N1 inkset described
10/30.  The
> comparison Piezo image is standard Piezo ink, with the Piezo
driver.  Both
> are on EAM.  The comparison image is "FS-N1-Pzo" in the Message
Related
> Files section of this forum.  See,
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/files/
> and go to the "Message Related Files" folder.
>
> Paul
> http://www.PaulRoark.com