Digital BW, The Print

I thought of trying a humidifier, as the RH in my
printing area ranges from %33 to 48%.  Larry told me
that a range of 30% to 70% was fine (but they have
high humidity in Vermont and have to run AC all the
time to keep it down).

Did you by any chance get a bad batch of Cone ink last
May or June?  I heard there was a large batch that
clogged really badly.  I may have some of this ink. 
When I tried to get up and running after the head
replacement, it was just hopeless.  I have talked with
quite a few other new Epson X6XX owners who also tried
to start out with Cone and gave up.  In fact, when I
started out with my new 7600 and Cone inks, I couldn't
get a clean nozzle check at all in three days of
trying.  Epson was going to send out a service tech,
but I had to go away for two weeks, so I put them on
hold.  When I got back, the printer miraculously
worked after one cleaning cycle.

Which RIP are you using?  I have thought of switching
from Studio Print to Image Print for quad printing,
because IP is generally a much better program and also
seems to have a better dither than SP.  If anything is
even slightly out of alignment, you very easily get
banding in SP.

Joel Pickford

--- Hogarth Hughes <hogarth@...> wrote:

> Not as few as you might imagine. There are a number
> of people out there 
> with x6xx printers running Cone's inks, including
> me. I started in 
> August of 2003, before Cone did - long before Cone
> was selling ink in 
> chipped carts for the x6xx printers. Long enough for
> me to learn to hate 
> filling my own carts ;-) My 7600 has been running
> fine ever since. The 
> only serious clog I've had came from UltraChrome
> inks in the first month 
> I had the machine, and it required an Epson tech. to
> fix. Since I 
> installed the PiezoTones it's been pretty smooth
> sailing, even with 
> sustained periods (three months) without printing.
> 
> All pigment inks clog. It's the laws of physics.
> There is no magic 
> bullet, unless it's dye inks. Other than Lyson's
> grayscale dyes (and 
> their metamerism problems), there are no viable
> grayscale dye inks on 
> the market AFAIK.
> 
> IMHO, your best bet is still the PiezoTones. Things
> you can do (that you 
> probably already know) to help with clogging are to
> keep the relative 
> humidity over 50% near the printer (humidifier when
> needed) and keep the 
> pads in the capping station saturated with distilled
> water (I soak 'em 
> every week during winter).
> 
> If you aren't going to go there again, the MIS inks
> have legions of 
> fans. Somehow I don't think you're going to be happy
> with a variable 
> tone inkset though... which just leads you back to
> PiezoTones.
> 
> I wish I had more wisdom to offer.
> --
> Hogarth Hughes
> 
> 
> joelpickford wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > I am looking for a new B&W exhibition printing
> solution and am 
> > interested in hearing
> > feedback from serious power users of MIS or other
> monochrome inks.
> >
> > I am one of  very few Epson Stylus Pro 7600 owners
> who has ever been 
> > able to get Cone
> > quad inks up and running out of the box.  For
> eight months I was able 
> > to produce, exhibit
> > and sell the most georgeous digital B&W prints I
> have ever seen, using 
> > Cone's Museum
> > Black, Carbon Sepia and Selenium ink sets in
> various split tone 
> > combinations on
> > Hahnemuhle Photo Rag. 
> 
>