Digital BW, The Print

Steve,

>... 1280 printer and a set of UT2 inks.  ...

>In the prints I've made with the UT2 inks, I've noticed, under a loupe 
>and with the naked eye, obvious dot patterns in the highlights, 

Under a loupe one might be able to see some dots on some papers under some
lighting conditions.  Looking at a test strip of PremierArt 205 under a
loupe, I see the paper texture and not dots, at least in reflected, overhead
light that is at a fair angle.  With another magnifier and more straight-on
light I might be able to distinguish the dots from the paper texture, but
it's not clear to me.  With back lighting I see some roughness, but it could
be the paper and not dots.  

Other papers might show more dots.

>...it appears that UT2 does not have a light gray (toned or untoned) ink 

The system uses a black ink, 2 dark gray inks (cool and warm carbon), and 3
lighter gray inks (cool, warm [carbon], and sepia).  Then there are 3
different dot sizes for each of these due to the variable-dot technology.  

The system is much like the OEM inks in the density distribution.  However,
the UT2 inks are very low gamut, thus giving them far less color contrast
than the color inks.

I'm sure you've checked the resolution and other settings.  

What paper, black ink, and media type setting are you using?

There are, of course, trade-offs between number and lightness of the inks,
and other factors.  The lighter inks in my previous efforts, for example,
tended to flood glossy papers.  The light inks often cause the worst
bronzing.  BO printing with the new neutral photo black mix, for example,
has less objectionable bronzing than the UT2 inkset.  In the R800 there are
no more light inks.

But, back to your issue, I can't tell what you're looking at.  Send me your
address off list and I'll mail one of the PA 205 UT2 Medium Warm test strips
I printed today.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com