Digital BW, The Print

Paul,

Thanks for the reply.  I actually have seen your website and have 
used your curve adjustments posted there.  I have not gotten a 
satisfactory B&W print (at least to me anyway) with the 2200 until 
using MIS inks and your curves.  I am really ambitious about their 
performance.  Thanks for the help.

Ben Hess

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Roark" 
<paul.roark@v...> wrote:
> Ben,
> 
> >...wondering if anyone ... wanted to comment on issues like 
> >lightfastness, ...
> 
> I concluded several years ago that I had to do my own testing.  
So, I made a
> fluorescent light fader (cheap but probably about as good as any), 
and
> started doing carefully-controlled comparison tests.  (I'll leave 
the
> predictions of years of display to Wilhelm and RIT.)  That is what 
convinced
> me to switch from Piezo to MIS inks.  The cheaper MIS inks were 
more
> lightfast.
> 
> Now both companies have new and very lightfast pigments.  I still 
do some
> testing, however, to see if anything better comes around and even 
to explore
> non-inkset sources of pigments.  
> 
> The bottom line is that the MIS UltraTone family of pigments has 
beat every
> other inkset I've tested, including the Epson Archival pigments.  
The carbon
> pigments seem to be the very best in terms of their retaining the 
visual
> density after lots of light exposure.  The carbon does warm up a 
bit,
> however.  I think the amount of warming is acceptable and not 
unlike what we
> see with other traditional B&W media.
> 
> Last year the magenta (which is in the cool and neutral inks) was 
the
> relative weakling.  So, at that time I recommended pure carbon, 
like the MIS
> EZ-Warm, for the best lightfastness.  (For archival, dark storage 
the paper
> base and storage conditions are the limiting factors, not the 
pigments.)
> Now the latest formulations have substituted a new pigment for the 
magenta.
> Because of this, the new UT neutral inks are almost as lightfast 
as the
> carbon.
> 
> Of course, I may not be totally un-biased here.  MIS's business 
model is
> such that it simply produces what the market wants.  It does not 
do its own
> B&W inkset designs, but it is an expert in finding good inks that 
act as the
> inputs for the B&W inksets.  As a practical matter, during the 
last few
> years, the B&W inksets have been formulations that I've come up 
with.  So,
> while I'm independent and do this for my own non-monetary 
purposes, one
> could argue that I may have a bias toward the inksets I 
formulated.  On the
> other hand, I formulated them in response to my fade tests, and my 
goal is
> to get the medium to the point where it is accepted by collectors 
as equal
> to the silver print.  Additionally, I've published on this forum 
the formula
> for a UT7-clone based on Epson UC inks.  I also published the fade 
test
> results, and the UC-based UT7 did great in their delta e, but not 
as well as
> the MIS inks in density reduction (fading).
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com