Digital BW, The Print

> 
> 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.

The need for a separate B&W mode strikes me as a compromise.  Ideally, I'd
think there should be a continuous crossover between, for example, the LLK
and color pigs as the saturation changed.  Perhaps they simply think that
for more accurate control they need a B&W mode that sets a very restricted
ink limit for the color pigs.


> >> 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.

That could happen, but I'm skeptical that Epson has found a killer
encapsulation technology.  For their big color market, the gamut is what
matters most.  Here the ink load -- amount of pigment relative to fluid --
is what matters most.  They do seem to have been able to jack that up a bit.
This probably has more to do with the fluid than pigments.

On the other hand, Epson is the company that has the most R&D to pour into
the field.  So, it's entirely possible that they will be able to pull away
from the others.  I'll rely on my own fade tests to tell.  I'll do a UC K3
v. UT7 as soon as someone can get me appropriate test strips.

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

No, they are claiming better longevity.  That may be affected most by how
much carbon (or the Epson version of such) is in the mix.   The LLK might
help here.


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

They need C, LC, M and LM for the best results.  Cyan by itself gives you
greenish B&Ws.  Use of just the light pigs is not optimum because it puts
more fluid than needed on the glossy paper, which is usually a negative.  

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com