Digital BW, The Print

Hi,

 

Digital printing is totally new to me. While I have a reasonable conceptual
and practical grasp of what I will need to do to scan my negatives and
manipulate them in Photoshop, I feel rather lost when it comes to digital
printing. I work exclusively with B&W. 

 

One of my considerations is the cost of purchasing a printer. As a general
matter, I have been told that a $100 printer will produce good images, but
that in order to use archival inks I'll need to go for something more
expensive (along the lines of $500) . What I am wondering is whether I can
get away with a less expensive printer for printing onto transparencies,
which I would expose onto standard black and white paper in my darkroom
(thus resulting in an archival print without the extra expense of the
printer). For the time being am happy to limit myself 8x10 if doing so
enables me to put off the cost of an expensive printer for some time. 

 

In a related vein, a friend of mine lent me an Epson 875DC. This printer is
rather old and my friend has used non-Epson print cartridges, which I
suspect as the cause for a number of peculiar behaviors  (the nozzles get
clogged at the drop of a hat and the color tone shifts randomly from cool to
warm (downright yellowish actually)). Is it worth it to get Epson cartridges
for this printer, or should I get something newer?

 

Finally, I am looking for good learning materials about digital printing in
particular and imaging in general. If it seems like contacting printing is a
viable option for me, then Dan Burkholder's book is a must. I also found a
title called _Mastering Digital Printing_
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1929685653/ref=wl_it_dp/002-8
608199-9392032?%5Fencoding=UTF8
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1929685653/ref=wl_it_dp/002-8
608199-9392032?%5Fencoding=UTF8&coliid=I3IJVB1TFW6V29&v=glance&colid=2OIQMFR
TEVT6Y> &coliid=I3IJVB1TFW6V29&v=glance&colid=2OIQMFRTEVT6Y). Does anyone
have experience with this book, or anything similar to it? I frustrated to
find that that most books and articles focus on color.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

--Phil

 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]