Digital BW, The Print

john dean wrote:

>That's why we hang out around here. Otherwise we'd be discussing canvas.
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>John
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>>Except if we did we would be called silly for even talking of such 
>>things. I don't think the wide format group has much valuable 
>>information on it, unless your machine is broken, then someone might 
>>help you. If you talk about testing papers for water resistance, and 
>>new ink formulations you get a bunch grief. Seems any kind of talk of 
>>new techniques, or other ground breaking findings went away a long 
>>time ago. I won't be posting much in the way of useful info in there 
>>anymore.
>>    
>>
You got a bit late to the party, CIS systems where often discussed on 
the Wide Format list when the 9000's etc where new. Those models had 
lousy cart systems that were prone to fail, refilled or new.  Leaking 
carts would spill ink on the electronics.  Cart slot needles could 
clogg. So I estimate the number of DIY and commercial CIS models 
available the world around was more than 20. Few as nice as my design. 
Most obsolete now.

The UC wide formats have nice, easy refillable carts with good valves 
that will not wear out. 220 ml carts can be used on all UC wide formats. 
The 10000 has similar carts but 500 ml that need some surgery to make 
them refillable. The 3 liter ink in total in the 10000 carts will 
produce 200 square meters if they were used equally fast. Refilling the 
LM carts is the most common task and isn't taking much more time than 
filling CIS bottles. Get extra sets if the consumption is high. A 6 or 7 
gallon size CIS will have 6 or 7 quarts of pigment settling at the 
bottom in 6 months, not easy to shake the bottles so you need pumps. All 
available in the big sign industry where 30 picoliter droplets are 
considered to be fine. I rather shake my 500 ml carts.

Ground breaking findings were already discussed on the Leben list before 
the Wide Format list was created. The industry still has to catch up. 
Red and blue hues added to the printer were favorites five years ago 
(C.D. Tobie), so was 3 grey inks added  to a CMYK printer (Culbertson), 
glop discussed, coatings that sealed themselves when heated. Wild ideas 
that I had. This B&W list is so lively because the industry still hasn't 
paid attention enough to B&W printing. As soon as reliable solutions 
with nice results appear we will discuss the merits of different 
canvasses here.  We are not that far from it. The real ground breaking 
news has then to come from digital camera forums. Back to fine printing now.

Ernst