Digital BW, The Print

>After the endless search for the Holy Grail, I think I've found my
>home. I settled on Generations4. The way I understand it, I
>ended up with the supposed "new yellow", which they've been
>selling for a year now, and the "Standard Black", which is all
>pigment and contains no dye, (different from their "Enhanced
>Black" which does contain some dye).

I think this mix-and-match Generations inkset, which as Mark says 
includes both the older, all-pigment, "standard" black and the new, 
fourth-generation lemon yellow, is what MediaStreet calls "Outdoor 
Generations" (I believe because it's more water resistant). Swapping 
in the blacker, hybrid Beta Black results in the Generations ink set 
I believe MediaStreet calls "Enhanced", at least on their web page. 
Wilhelm still calls "Generations 4", as Mark and I believe 
MediaStreet itself did when they submitted it for testing.


>Again, my goal was ultimate longevity, at least with the materials
>that are available on the market today.

It is the Enhanced/Gen4 Generations inkset, the one with the hybrid, 
75/25 pigment/dye ("beta") black, which Wilhelm is testing (on Royal 
Plush) and which is now at 100+ and counting. So Mark might well have 
achieved his goal by swapping the all-pigment, "standard"  black back 
into the inkset he's using.


>And when you match it up with Epson Smooth Fine Art, which is
>acid-free, and brightener-free, I think it's a good combination.
>
>I will say, I was very surprised to see the punchiness of the
>colors. I had expected a noticeable downtown from the dyes that
>I'd been using, and had read concerns about the punchiness of
>the black. I'd say on both counts, it looks VERY good. The yellow
>is more of a "lemon yellow" rather than a "Kodak yellow", but for
>me, printing limited-gamut B/W, I don't think it's a big deal at all,
>once it's profiled properly.
>
>So I'm a happy camper, after sleeping around with every ink
>company in the universe. I also added a small HomeDepot
>humidifier underneather the 7000; it runs at night on low,
>underneather a draped sheet of plastic over the printer.
>
>-Mark Tucker