Digital BW, The Print

Shilesh, I really appreciate your taking the time to provide such 
useful information

--"Shilesh Jani" <shilesh.jani@s...> wrote:
> workspace) is critical.  I am no expert on this, and I find that 
20% 
> dot gain works for me.

I have used Gray 2.2, and 20% dot gain, but most of my work has been 
done using Gray 2.2, since that working space seems to give the best 
monitor correspondence with my 1280 output when using Epson single 
black and either the Epson driver or PS controls.
 
 (ii) UT-
> FS inks also in the regular (warm) and neutral hues. 

these are the ones I was contemplating, based on the info give at the 
MIS site. 
The URL
http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/qn.html
has a statement that the Cone R9 driver is needed with UT FS and UT 
FSN inks on 6 color printers, 
and the list of prefilled carts for UT-FS with the 1280 at 
http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/quadcart.html
also says they need the Cone driver,
so I hope your statement below supercedes that

>this tonal arrangment 
> yields excellent results on EEM paper, printing straight from PS, 
> using the Epson driver.  You don't need the Piezo driver. 

great

> With UT-FS inks, now MIS has started filling their carts in 
> the position Paul and I came up with those many months ago. 
> So, if toning is not necessary for you, it would be worth going 
> with the FS inks for the slightly warm opition.  I tried UT-FS  
> neutral inks some time back, but it was not to my taste because I 
beileve my 
> perception is extremely sensitive to magenta. 

I am also very sensitive to magenta.  With a profiled monitor and 
printer, i very quickly gave up using RGB Epson for grayscale, due to 
magenta tinting, and to me the demo version of ImagePrint that i 
downloaded had a slight magenta cast on grayscale images, at least in 
the watermark areas.

> This option, either in carts or a CIS on your 1280 will 
> give you about the smoothest prints available today 
> But, you would need to create 
> grayscale curves for different papers.  I have done that, and it is 
> easy.

I am pretty happy with EEM as a paper -- i don't care if my prints 
live longer than i do, and so far neither do the people who put them 
on their walls.  The main issue is whether i need to use a reflection 
densitometer to make really accurate curves.  Are Paul's curves in 
the zip file 1280utfs.zip still accurate for EEM?
 
> Maybe this weekend I will compare the gradients on 
> my 1280 and see how smoothness compares between the Epson driver  
> and QTR on the 1280.  And using a RIP is NOT necessarily faster.  

agreed, QTR is far slower than the EPson or PS drivers on my system.

 >One observation:  if you already have a 2200, 

nope, just a 1280.

>you want the absolute lack of dots in the 
> highlights. 
yes, i do.  I have a bunch of high key images i have been unabel to 
print digitally due to my disatisfaction with dither'

> Hope this helps.
> 
> Shilesh
Again, i really appreciate the effort you have gone to in explaining 
things to me and others.

ted