Digital BW, The Print

Anybody using an Epson 4000 and Studio Print with
either PiezoTone Portfolio Black or Eboni Black on
Hahnemuehle Photo Rag? What kind of Dmax are you
getting?

I used to have an Epson 7000 and I was getting a Dmax
of around 1.74 on HPR with SP10 and PiezoTone
Portfolio Black. I recently changed to a 4000 and SP11
and can't get a Dmax higher than 1.6.

My 4000 has PiezoTone Selenium w/ Portfolio Black on
the left side (slots 1-4 Portfolio Black, Dark Gray,
Middle Gray and Light Gray in that order) and MIS FSN 
on the right side (slots 5-8 Eboni, Dark Gray, Middle
Gray, Light Gray in that order). These are hand loaded
carts. 

Two print environments are set up in SP11: 

PiezoTone with ink assignments for slots 1-4: black
(the matte black position), light black, light black
2, light black 3 in that order. Paper config is set to
Matte. 

FSN with ink assignments for slots 5-8: black (the
photo black position), light black, light black 2,
light black 3 in that order. Paper config is set to
Photo.

I'm certain the correct inks are in the indicated
carts. I can verify this by performing a "Print Ink
Assignment" under the ink assignment tab. This prints
a patch of the maximum ink in each channel.  8 patches
are printed, one for each channel. The patches printed
from left to right (slots 1-8) are black, a lighter
gray, still lighter gray, even still lighter gray
indicating the PiezoTone black, dark gray, middle gray
and light gray. Patch 5 corresponding to the Eboni in
slot 5 Photo Black position doesn't print. (This may
be a bug in SP). Patches 6-8 are a gray, lighter gray,
still lighter gray indicating the FSN dark gray,
middle gray, and light gray.

I have an Eye One spectrophotometer that I use for
density measurments.

Printiing a density adjustment target on HPR  using
$StandHiRes.pdn I get a Dmax in the last step of of
the target of between 1.59 and 1.61. Step 59 of the 60
steps printed is about 1.39, so there is a big jump
from step 59 to 60. I never saw this using SP10 on the
7000.  The space between the last steps was usually
.01 or .02. In addition, the black boxes which precede
each line are reading about 1.59. The Dmax should be
at or about 1.74. I get the same results from the
PiezoTone set as well as from the FSN set.

To find out whether or not there is a problem with the
printer or the ink, I made two prints of a grayscale
from Photoshop using the Epson driver printing black
only. One with a matte paper setting (thus using the
Portfolio Black which is located in the matte black
position) and the other with a photo paper setting
(thus using the Eboni Black which is located in the
Photo Black position). Measuring the 100% patch on the
grayscale I got 1.61 for the matte paper setting and
1.73 (which is what I would expect!) for the photo
paper setting. I suspect the difference is due to the
ink limit Epson has in their print driver for the 4000
when using a matte paper setting, (which was reported
in this forum maybe a week or two ago). This shows
that the printer/paper/ink combination is cabable of
reaching 1.73 - but only the Epson driver with the
photo paper setting is cabable of producing it.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?

-John




		
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