Digital BW, The Print

I owe some feedback to the group, and I'll take this oportunity.

As previuosly mentioned, I had some initial disappointing results 
with my Canon i965 + Lyson's Quad Black inks. The first prints all 
looked faint, with an horrible magenta hue on Lyson's 170gsm Matt 
InkJet paper. I tried any possible combination of profile, none 
yielding the desired results.

The kind guys from Lyson suggested not to use any profile, but just 
to print black and white images in RGB mode with minimal histogram 
adjustment. They also sent me a sample print done with their inks on 
their media, that appeared much better than my digital prints.

Just to rimind you, the Canon i965 is an A4 6 inks channels printer 
with maximum resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, supposed to produce 2 
picoliter ink droplets. Although not being a professional model, it 
should give pleasant and acceptable results up to A4 enlargments 
using monochrome inks such as Lyson's.

I then had precious suggestions from Howard on this forum: adding +3 
to the black, cyan, magenta and cyan sliders in the i965 driver 
finally gave richer prints, both on matte (Lyson) and glossy (Lyson, 
Canon and Ilford) papers. This solution correlates well with the 
fact that when the "photo-cyan" and "photo-magenta" tanks finished, 
the other four tanks (black, cyan, magenta and cyan) were almost 
full. Needles to say, a noozle check revealed no problem. After 
applying Howard's suggestions, the other tanks begun to be used.

I do not know if all this makes any sense. The problem is that I am 
still far from a true WYSIWYG working situation. I still have to do 
a few mini-prints in order to have an idea about what the final 
print will be. How can I know what shade of gray is managed by the 
cyan channel or by the photo magenta channel, etc? Is digital black 
and white printing still a guesswork job?

One more question I would like to ask the forum: Are there any 
alternatives to the Lyson inks (either pigment or dyes) to be used 
with my Canon i965?

Antonio


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "paulvtt" 
<paulv@w...> wrote:
> 
> Hi
> 
> I'd like to hear from somebody who uses or has used the Lyson Quad
> Black ink or another manufactures B&W inkset in a Canon I9100 or 
in an 
> Epson 2200. Through a unique series of events I have both 
printers. I 
> am seriously considering dedicating one of them to Black & White 
> printing. Thinking about using the Canon for color and the Epson 
for 
> Black & White, but that is flexible.
> 
> Would like to use a Black & White ink set, perhaps Lyson Quad 
Black.
> 
> Would like to hear from somebody who has recent experience in 
using a 
> black & white inkset in either or both printers. Particularly 
> interested in the quality of the prints, longevity, and any 
problems 
> with the setup and use. Not sure if I will use cartridges or their 
> bulk feed system.
> 
> I live in the US near Chicago, so I have excellent supply houses 
in 
> easy reach
> 
> Thanks
> 
> PV