Digital BW, The Print

A further report and observations on overcoating with MIS gloss 
optimizer. Some bad news, I'm afraid, at least for those of us using 
the MIS UC inks.
 After switching my K from the 'Universal' to MIS PK and gloss-
coating with the 1280, I started getting some very good dmax, far 
better than I've gotten with matte K on Photorag. The problems 
however, started a few hours after making the prints, when the gloss 
coat really started to dry. The dark gray areas gradually lost their 
gloss, and in some cases actually bronzed up again, and looked very 
flat. Not the results I'd gotten with the full color prints.
The glossy papers hardly suffered at all, but the semi-matte showed 
the effect heavily, especially with low-key but not black areas. The 
problem seemd to involve only the dark grays, IOW the LK printed 
areas. I then did a full-page gray-scale, and coated 5 sections with 
5 different levels of glop, using the Epson driver sliders to 
control the lay-down. 
After dry-down, 2 things became obvious: 1) While the 100% K band 
retained the gloss, the bands from 95% to about 75% matted and 
bronzed again. 2) The heaviest glop coat retained the gloss most 
consistently. 20% may work if you're mixing it into the ink, but 
this way, you need more like 120% for a solid coat. 

A later test of the Epson Premium semi-gloss was more successful: a 
day later the surface felt dry, no visible dry-down effects, and a 
killer tonal range. So far with this ink combination, the Epson 
premium semi-gloss is the winner.

Other papers tested:

Epson PGPP
Epson Prem. semi-matte
Oriental Graphica luster
Proof-Line semimatte DP and Glossy DP
Kirkland Glossy (the Swiss-made) 

I'm hoping that this problem has to do with the MIS LK ink, so I've 
ordered a cart of the Epson to test; If the Epson ink is better, A 
much lighter coat might do the job.
This of course means switching and flushing the LK line, so I'd like 
to put out a request to those list members running QTR on PC who 
have an idea how to do this, for a curve that will run the LK 
channel only, at full tilt. Or a description of what it needs to 
look like at any rate, or a link to that info if it is already 
available.

Some further observations-

Drying the prints before gloss-coating does not seem to be 
neccessary. The prints I've had least trouble with, I dried quickly 
with a few seconds of hair drier blast, and fed right through the 
gloss coat stage. 

If you use a desktop printer for the gloss, the pizza-wheels MUST 
go. Even at the slowest feed setting the glop coat is too soft to 
take the abuse. This causes problems with last half-inch of paper if 
you're overcoating all the way out. Easy enough to allow for it with 
a border.

Nozzle checks need to be done on an instant-dry glossy or semi-gloss 
paper, so you can see the reflection on the pattern, and so the 
other ink colors don't get on your rollers and then on your next 
print. I had been using the back of RC paper-the zero absorption 
makes the gloss coat easy to see, but cost me a couple of otherwise 
good prints.

I've had the glop cart in the 1280 for a couple days now, no 
clogging problems yet, only the occasional cleaning cycle needed, so 
far so good. It hasn't been as trouble-free as running dyes, but 
easier than pigments.

The glop is easy to refill in the annoying 1280 carts. I've found I 
don't have to pull out the remaining ink/foam-I'm getting 10-15ml in 
the bottom with no BS. Wonderfull, considering these carts are small 
and coating an entire piece of paper eats the stuff up in a hurry. 
Good thing it's cheap in bulk.

QTR is working very well for this. So far I've used only the EEM 
profiles for all the RC papers I've tested, and I have no problem 
fine-tuning any given pair without-split-toning, crossover or 
visible metamerism. I do have to use the 1440 super and 
unidirectional printing to get as smooth and micro-banding free a 
print as I like, but I would use that setting regardless.
What the heck, I think I'll go ahead and pay for it...

Print protection being an issue, I tried waxing a couple of the 
prints that dried properly-it works well, the wax goes on smoothly 
and easily, and buffs up nicely. No more skid-marks or fingerprints, 
thank you. Very different from trying to wax a straight UC print. I 
don't know how much protection wax adds, but it's got to be good for 
something more than just smudge resistance.

That's it so far;
I'd be interested in hearing from others trying this out, 
particularly anyone using straight Epson UC inks; any problems?

Steve Karafyllakis

http://www.stevekphoto.com