Digital BW, The Print

> I actually worked out the 6 color solution a
> couple of years ago and posted it on the
> epson leben list and the digital darkroom site
> and gave it to MIS since I was beta testing
> for them at the time.   It took from then to
> now to come up with the inkset/media
> combination that is quite indestructable on
> glossy.  
> 
> Let's just say that a LOT of reverse
> engineering went into the Spectratones with
> the Epson 6 color RGB driver in mind.
snip 
> Allen
> 
> Lincolninks.com

I remember when you were doing that with the MIS inks.  I tried your MIS ink
order because it sounded right but the MIS inks just didn't quite have the
right individual tonal characteristics to work as-is without some peculiar
flattening in the midtones.  Couldn't even get that out with a CMYK setup
that let me adjust the C and M channel's dot area separately.  For a while I
tried to mix some clear base into the inks to get a proper set of ink tones
that worked with the standard cC and mM driver crossovers but it was just
*way* too labor intensive (and I used up *way way* too many ink cartridges).
So your six tone inkset that is perfectly balanced to use three or four
tones with the standard driver crossovers is a huge achievement!  I'm not
sure anyone who hasn't tried to come up with their own ink set has any idea
how difficult that "reverse engineering" actually is.  For a while I had a
lot of hope for the Yarc Xtreme six channel RIP (which allows you to
customize the Cc and Mm crossovers in the driver) as an alternate software
solution to six color printers with grayscale inks -- but, unfortunately,
Yarc seems to have died of a severe case of terminal bankruptcy so we are
back to your "create just the right ink" solution.  But since that is the
much simpler (for the user) solution and takes advantage of the Epson dither
it all works out for the best!

-- Dan Culbertson
so many years, so little time...