Digital BW, The Print

Hello Yonnyboy,

>Does anyone understand WHY banding occurs in inkjet prints? I have 
>been trying black only printing with a wide variety of papers...and 
>different black inks. The luminosity and image tone of black only 
>prints is just far and away more suitable for MY tastes. 

>Most will not agree...
>Black only printing is truly beautiful in my view and I am willing 
>to accept the graininess of this techniques in exchange for the 
>rich luminosity and color of image tone. 

There are lots of BO users out here who agree, you aren't alone.



>Does anybody have any experience or suggestions that might help?

Yes, couple of things:

1) You didn't say what printer, but if it has a paper thickness lever,
try different settings.  Sometimes it makes a big difference, and
seems to vary among printers.

2) I use a 2200, and found that a head alignment helped.  BUT, not in
the usual sense.  Instead of the best match of the test print lines
(which didn't help), I tried selecting lower line numbers and it got
better.  I kept going lower, and ended up using #2 and have very
little banding - requires a glass to see it.

Something else to consider - several people have been experimenting
with QTR and 2-black-ink curves (K+LK).  Steve Karafyllakis has been
blending inks for the LK position to try and control the color better
(UC LK is too warm and UT7 LK is too blue-green), and is getting
stunning results.  He's calling it "2K" printing, and hopefully he
will report his results soon.  The nice thing about it is its similar
to BO in that it does allow paper to show between the dots, even
though they are closer together.  It preserves much of BO's
luminosity, and gives a much smoother appearance.  Dmax is also good,
though maybe a tad shy of BO's.  So this is worth keeping an eye on.


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm