Digital BW, The Print

> From: Paul Roark <paul.roark@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 08:15:21 -0700
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: RE: [Digital BW] Re: New Printers announced by Epson
> 
> 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.

I'm wondering how the driver handles situations which are, say, mostly B&W
but with a little colour.  Seems to me you would lose the B&W mode.
Hopefully all the driver advances aren't buried in there.

> 
>> 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.  

Maybe I am naïve but it seems as the inks get more and more complex with
newer encapsulation techniques the clones may begin to lag further behind.

Am I missing something or are the proclaimed longevity stats worse than
those originally claimed for the UCs?

I think the real test will still likely be the bronzing one and whether a
0.2 increase in dMax is really achievable.


> 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.

Yes although it is claimed that only the black channel is flushed now - at
least on the large format printers.
> 
> 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.


How do you think they cool the greyscale?  I guess I would have thought by
using LC not magenta.  Can you elaborate...

Cheers

Steve