Digital BW, The Print

Diane

Unless I am missing something, the QTR curves for the standard Epson inks
have always been "2K".  That is to say, they have always used a greyscale
compiled from K and LK with the tone of the latter controlled using LC, LM
and Y.  Of course one can always move away from the Epson ink setup and put
in any ink you feel like (purchased or a self-made mix).  At the moment I am
running the following setup (as is, in effect, I believe Carl Schofield)

# Uses the MIS inks in the following positions:
# K PKN
# LK glop
# C PK 
# LC UT7 Warm Light Grey
# M Eboni
# LM UT7 Cool Light Grey
# Y UT7 Sepia toner

I have warm, neutral, cool and sepia curves - each of which is effectively
"2K".  Combine this flexible, matte and photo paper setup with the ICC
profile managed workflow and the results are fantastic.

I would argue that Black Only's principal appeal is its simplicity - nothing
need be installed (assuming you already have the Epson driver) etc.  It
could be significantly improved further with a greyscale ICC profile for the
BO output but that remains difficult to construct unless you have the
ability to write a program to write the ICC profile (which is not too
difficult a process if you are, say, a C++ or Objective C programmer).

The "next step" after dabbling with BO is arguably QTR with OEM inks which
as noted is 2K.  From there it is literally choose your poison and whatever
inks you want to try and whatever number you wish to employ in creating the
greyscale - up to 7K.

As Clayton notes there is a very small dMax hit associated with leaving the
Epson driver QTR (at least for the 21/2200) but to be honest it is so small
as to be insignificant in an actaul print (1.60ish vs 1.65ish)

Steve

> From: Diane Fields <picnic@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 13:44:57 -0400
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Re: Black only printing and banding
> 
> I've seen a hint of this and am looking forward to trying it.  I had planned
> on trying your BO on my 1280 for the last 2 years but procrastinated long
> enough to find QTR LOL.
> 
> Diane
>   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
>