Digital BW, The Print

PAul,

Is the Epson 10,000 seies suitable for b&w printing.

They print considerably faster that the other Epson wide-format 
printers.

But I did notice the droplet size is 25% larger (5pl vs. 4pl)

Thanks Paul,

Scott

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Roark" 
<paul.roark@v...> wrote:
> I'll see if MIS will send me one of their UT2 carts to see what I 
get with
> my 1280.  Ted's inks looked OK, but ... 
> 
> Usually settings or profiles tagged to the files are the problems.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com 
> _________________________________
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jimpegoda [mailto:pegoda@c...] 
> Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 2:00 AM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Digital BW] Re: UT2 probs
> 
> 
> 
> I'm having some of the same problems with UT2 inks that Ted is 
> having although my 21step.tif file looks fine on my monitor, which 
> has been calibrated with a ColorVision Spyder and PhotoCAL. 
> Regardless of the state of the monitor the 21step.tif file should 
> print with even separation.
> 
> I recently purchased a 1280 and UT2 inks for black and white 
> printing. I tried black only printing with my 2200 and liked 
> everything except the coarse dot pattern. QTR did a great job of 
> making my 2200 print black and white without color casts or 
> metamerism but I thought the dots were still too visible in the 
> lighter values. I had high hopes for the UT2 inkset but after years 
> of creating very accurate color prints I am currently very unhappy 
> with the black and white results I'm getting using UT2.
> 
> After 3 days of testing here are my findings. 
> Like Ted, I found the contrast very lacking in the middle and 
darker 
> values. Printing the 21step.tif file confirms this. I have printed 
> the 21step.tif file using Roark's curves, the Epson Driver (slider 
> method) and QTR. The results are consistent with a little 
variation. 
> Generally the steps between 60% and 85% show very little 
separation, 
> the steps from 0% to 5% are too large and the three steps from 90% 
> to 100% are too large. The values between 70% and 85% show almost 
no 
> separation. I noticed that neutral prints had slightly better 
> separation the carbon prints so I printed cool and sepia versions 
> and found that the cool version of the 21step.tif file printed with 
> much better separation and the sepia version had very uneven value 
> separation with a large jump between 60% and 70%. I printed the 
> 21step.tif file on my 2200 using Epson UC inks and QTR and got 
great 
> separation across the value range. Images I've printed using the 
> three methods mentioned above are all lacking in contrast and 
> exhibit some posterization, which is very noticeable in skin tones. 
> 
> I can't help think that there may be a problem with the UT2 inks. 
> Maybe a bad batch? I hope somebody can prove me wrong because I 
just 
> invested a lot of time and money into this system.
> 
> Jim
> 
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "tgos3" 
> <egosfield@c...> wrote:
> > 
> > Hi --
> > This my first post to the group.  I have spent a fair bit of time 
> > looking through previous posts and 'files', as well as relevant 
> QTR 
> > and UT2 website files, help files, etc.
> > 
> > I have done B&W gelatin-silver printing for about 40 years, using 
> > Zone system for the last 20 or so.  I used to use Ilfobrome, 
> > Gallerie, Seagull, and Dektol.  Now I use a Windows XP Pro, a 
1280 
> > with Epson inks, profiled in PhotoCal 2.6 for color, unprofiled 
> for 
> > G2.2 sisngle black printing, and a Spyder monitor profile on a 
CRT 
> > monitor.  Have been almost happy with single tone Epson black, 
> except 
> > for the nasty dither pattern in the high values.  Tried the 
> > ImagePrint RIP demo, but still had metamerism,(faint magenta) 
> > although the dither is much less obtrusive.  Don't want to spend 
> the 
> > bucks for an obsolescent printer with dongle and still have 
> > metamerism.
> > 
> > Sprang for UT2 inks, which i used up (well, there's a bunch of 
> Eboni 
> > left over) in a day of experimenting and printing.  When viewing 
> the 
> > 21 patch file, from 90% to 50% seems pretty compressed, as do the 
> > patches on a printout. I only have a transmission densitometer, 
so 
> I 
> > couldn't measure them.  My UT2 prints certainly do not have the 
> > contrast in the shadows that i could achieve with single black, 
or 
> > with ImagePrint.  Reducing the ink limit and gamma in QTRgui 
> didn't 
> > really solve the problem, since the blacks got weaker without the 
> > shadow contrast problem being solved.
> > 
> > I tried Epson HW Matte, Archival Matte, and Arches Hot press 
> > watercolor.  I tried setting paper type (and presumably ink 
> deposit) 
> > to Photo Paper, Matte Heavyweight, and Photo Quality Glossy Film 
> > (which was the best).  I tried printing both with QTR and using 
> > Paul's curves in Photoshop.  (eventually had to reinstall my 1280 
> > driver due to software nastiness/printer hang)  I played a bit 
> with 
> > Gama setting using the Epson driver to print at 1.8 or 2.2.  I 
> tried 
> > carbon, neutral, and cool curves in photoshop.
> > 
> > For some images Carbon looks nice, but still the low densities 
are 
> > pretty muddy and flat looking by my standards, using UT2 inks, 
> when 
> > the gray mode print looks good on the screen, and has printed 
fine 
> > using other ink/apps.  I was able to make new files that printed 
> > better, by making the print look 'too light' in G2.2 mode on the 
> > screen, before RGB/curves were applied.
> > 
> > I tried making a PS Working Space custom file to change the gray 
> > scale image on screen, but even with 'preview' checked i can not 
> get 
> > the image to update on the screen in real time.  PS seems to be 
> set 
> > up to have reflection density values entered numerically, 
although 
> i 
> > can move the curve.
> > 
> > Before i order any more MIS inks, i am interested to know whether 
> > people have had to change their images to adapt to UT2 inks, as 
> one 
> > would, say, to a new paper/developer combination, or have they 
> been 
> > able, using stock Ruark curves, to get 'good' prints, matching 
the 
> > G2.2 monitor image of the unmanipulated files that have printed 
> well 
> > in the past.
> > 
> > At this point i am tempted to wait for the new Epson printer 
> > announced in Japan, which supposedly prints tritone blacks.  
> > Basically I want a good Dmax and invisible dither in the lightest 
> > tones below paper white.  I think the stock Epson black ink looks 
> ok, 
> > although the UT2 colors are ok with me too.
> > 
> > So far UT2 'caliberation' has been more expensive and time 
> consuming 
> > than it would have been for wet printing with a new combination ;-
> )  
> > Kinda frustrating that at this point in digital printing we still 
> > don't have a conveniently achievable WYSIWYG method to print high 
> > quality B&W.  I am perfectly willing to believe this is entirely 
> due 
> > to user error and inexperience on my part, since so many others 
> seem 
> > to be happy with their results.  I'd love to hear what I am doing 
> > wrong.
> > 
> > 
> > Ted
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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