Digital BW, The Print

Nick;


> I got the expected beautiful color prints but was very
> pleasantly surprised to find virtually no color crossover or
> even a hint of metamerism in a b/w print. At least not that
> I can visually perceive in various lighting conditions. 

What it looks like is not the only concern; though its becoming less 
of an issue, lifespan will most likely be less if there are color 
inks involved. Even if only one or two of the inks a little weaker 
than the rest, you will get color shift at some point in the future.


 Is the printer driver printing black-only
> implicitly? 

Not a chance! If you hava a 10x loupe handy, take a look at one of 
your B&W prints, you'll see color ink dots, guarranteed. While 
you're at it, look for traces of banding & get back to me on that, 
please? I have it in my mind to go back and try the demo unit, it 
would be encouraging to have another report of perfect banding free 
prints.

> By the way I don't use Adobe98 in the driver setting but
> use the convoluted Color-Management:ICM and ICC/ICM: Color
> Profile:OFF(No Color Management) using the print space of
> the newly created color profiles. This resulted in breath-
> takingly beautiful b/w prints. This is really unexpected
> from a full color inkset using the Epson driver. 

This is the way I set it up also, but using the premium profiles 
supplied with the printer driver. I got very good color, but only 
fair (but workable) B&W. Even with those profiles there was almost 
no crossover; I think doutones should be quite easy; in fact both my 
glossy and EEM B&W tests looked like nice doutones, one cool, the 
other warm...

Enjoy, & I'll keep you posted on which way I go with this. I hope by 
tomorrow to be eating my (negative) words, that would make me very 
happy.

Steve Karafyllakis