Digital BW, The Print

John,
 
> Well, apparently they finally did it, added a real light black to the mix 

This plus the driver's B&W mode, if it works as well as I expect, will take
a major part of the B&W field.  I think they finally figured it out.

> What is this going to do to independent monochrome ink manufacturers?

The third party sellers will have the usual clone inks with much lower
prices.  Whether a dedicated B&W inkset will have much of a market for the
2400 is debatable.  I frankly doubt it, even though there could be
advantages to such.

There are a couple of features of the current MIS UT7 inkset that will cause
me to stay with it and the 7600 for a while.  Changing the black inks in
large format printers makes the ability to print glossy and matte papers
without changing inks a huge advantage of the UT7 approach.  

Additionally, the new UC K3 inkset appears to lack the R800 blue ink.  This
blue ink is so much more lightfast than magenta, that the B&Ws done with UT7
(which uses the clone R800 blue instead of magenta in the cool toner) will
probably be significantly more lightfast, but I'll have to run a fade test
to see.  Maybe Epson has been able to deal with this problem.  

Why does the new 2400 have the "R" in front of it if it lacks the Red and
Blue inks?

For those who are dedicated B&W printers, simply putting the R800 blue in
the M positions in the 2400 might make it a better B&W printer that would
still be controllable with the Epson driver's new B&W mode.  For those who
prefer Epson ink, it's too bad the R800 blue is not available in appropriate
carts and dilutions.  

Ironically, between color digital cameras and "B&W" printers that are
actually color printers, I see most casual B&W types getting distracted by
the color to the detriment of their B&W.  It all makes me more interested in
staying with B&W film and a dedicated B&W inkset to stay in an environment
that is different from what the vast majority will find themselves in. 

> I don't see how they can support all the various inksets for 
>all these printers, but it hasn't stopped them in the past.

Too many inksets is a major reason for the problems we've seen.  Mistakes
are inevitable.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com