Digital BW, The Print

Steve, didn't Joel say he already tried the 7000 route & found the
prints too grainy in 
appearance?  Have you avoided this appeaarance?  

Joel, I looked at your admirable work on the Web & can understand
your frustration (which 
you also expressed concerning my Digital Outback BW Forum post,
comparing IP & QTR).  
From the web representations, crude as they may be in comparison to a
fine print, one can 
tell what tonalities your images are asking for, and I hope & pray
that you find satisfying 
materials.  

But your request to Epson, while reasonable (assuming they can get
carbon through the 
nozzles) & even potentially profitable, will no doubt get the
attention that Epson customer 
feedback always receives.  The Tech Support folks seem to hear & know
what many of the 
problems are, but are considered too lowly to have influence with
project developers & 
engineers.    

Assuming an Epson solution is hopeless, I have three thoughts about
what you've said 
here (& there):

First, I agree with most of what you say about available BW printing
systems.  In comparing 
IP & QTR, I didn't mean to say they set the highest standards -
though I tend to attribute 
as much difficulty to the limited DMax of matte papers as to the inks
& RIPs.  The same 
group that I mentioned also looked at Cone system sample prints, but
only as anacademic 
standard of comparison - nobody planned on tacklingt the clogging
problems of either 
Cone or MIS inks.  

Second, I think you've almost talked yourself back into the
darkroom.wI don't meana that 
as a jab, I mean it seriously: With your Cone system dead, is
anything likely to prove more 
satisfying than a fine gelatin silver print? 

Third - and this is the path that interests me - maybe we have to ask
what sort of style & 
vision can emerge through existing inkjet systems.  In my color work
I've learned to turn 
away from 'Eggleston colors' & look for images that can play
themselves out through the 
softer palette of pigment inks. 

I'm assuming that I have to make the same adaptations in inkjet BW
printing.  I've tried 3 
RIPs & have been playing at reproducing (as closely as possible) the
appearance of old 
matte papers.  Of course these weren't as popular as unferrotyped
glossy papers; but my 
next trip to SFMOMA will be a search for inspirations that don't
depend on the tonal range 
that so excited Weston when he first made bromide prints.  What kind
of light might 
register well, within the limitations of inkjet printing?  I'm going
to look for the Pictorialist 
stuff that I've always ignored, & will be looking especially at the
Atget prints, original & 
reprinted, that show up at the Fraenkel Gallery.  He could, after
all, capture a glorious 
sense of light with abundant flare & few Zones of latitude.  

I have several friends who use alternative printing processes that
don't utilize the deepest 
blacks & do not depend at all on consistency of tone across the
grayscale.  Some of them 
are becoming interested in inkjet printing from digital negatives. 
While that isn't what I - 
or presumably you - would want to do, it does suggest that there's
some creative space 
available within the limits of BW inkjet printing systems.  

Pardon me for expressing this at such length!

Kirk Thompson