Digital BW, The Print

I plan to dedicate my 7000 to BW-printing, so this is very interesting.
I am a Mac user, and since Epson has no OS X driver for the 7000 I have to use the Mac 
OS9 (or maybe a Gimp print driver?)
 Can I get a RGB-curve for Eps SemiMatte from you, when I get so far?

Bjorn


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Roark" <paul.roark@v...> 
wrote:
> Bjorn,
> 
> >...I have the Epson 7000 printer. Which inkset produces the best BW 
> >print with this printer and what is the difference from the Epson 7500 ?
> 
> I'm not sure I can say absolutely the best is produced by ______.  However
> what I've done with my 7500 is, first, for matte printing use the MIS UT1
> inkset.  This has a variable tone range from carbon warm to very cool.  It
> served me very well when I was doing only matte papers on the 7500.
> 
> However, I have found the UT1 did not do very well with glossy paper on the
> 7500 (and some others).  So, while the UT2 and UT7 were the solution for
> desktop units I used, the 7500 didn't do well with them either due to the
> large dots.  It still needs a very light ink in it.
> 
> So, I now have a variant of the UT-FSN inkset in the 7500.  It uses one
> custom ink to replace the medium gray FSN, which was too light.  MIS has the
> formula for this and, I assume, will mix it if there is any demand.  At any
> rate, I have this customized FSN in the cyan spots and Y position.  In the M
> spot I put MIS PK.  In the LM I have UT2-LM (the light warm carbon ink from
> the UT2 inkset).
> 
> This combination gets me very good matte and glossy prints from neutral tone
> through medium warm.  Since I'm really interested in mostly neutral tones,
> the (UT2) LM is used primarily to control what I consider excessive coolness
> in the shadows of some cotton papers.  So, I think it's a significant
> improvement over straight FSN for some papers.  The ability to better
> profile papers for neutral printing was really the main reason for my
> original variable tone approach, and it continues to be such for me.  
> 
> The PK in M, in combination with the FSN-C gives me excellent dmax on glossy
> papers.  Interestingly, the PK with the dark cool ink produces a better dmax
> than the straight PK (including the UC PK which I also tried in the inkset).
> 
> So, my latest prints are coming off a roll of Epson Premium Semimatte that
> is now loaded in the 7500.  I must say I love the dynamic range of these
> prints, which I've been spraying with Print Shield, dry mounting, and
> framing without glass of matte board.  (Very un-fine art, but very nice to
> look at from my perspective.) 
> 
> The relatively old 7500 cannot match the smoothness of the newer printers on
> many papers when examined with a magnifying glass.  However, for even
> letter-size prints on glossy paper, it's essentially dotless at any normal
> viewing distance. 
> 
> The 7000 and 7500 are essentially the same machines.  The drivers are
> different, but people on Windows can run either machine with either driver.
> The 7500 appears to have different firmware, but that may mostly provide for
> more cleaning cycles, which you can do manually. 
> 
> As usual, I control the inkset with RGB curves, which I have for a number of
> papers.
> 
> If you're interested in this approach, let me know and I'll try to be sure
> MIS is up to speed on the custom medium density FSN that is needed.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com 
> _______________________________
>