Digital BW, The Print

Paul;
 
> > >> 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.

Maybe I'm cynical, but Epson is, after all having this stuff made in 
China. Considering current Chinese-Japanese relations, I wouldn't be 
surprised to "clone" inks and carts on the market within a few 
months..

 


>> > 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.  
> 

I'm hoping they're doing it the other way: formulating a set of inks 
that don't need cooling, so there's no influx of color pigs on a 
neutral print. That is after all the most reliable way to get 
crossover/cast/metamerism free B&W printing. Is that just too 
logical to hope for?

I'm also very curious to see how they pressurize the bigger carts: 
An internal bladder, an external pump metering air into the cart, a 
simple mechanical solution such as a springy plastic panel pushing 
against the ink bag?  How they do this could affect third party 
suppliers as much as cloning the inks, at least initially.


Steven Karafyllakis