Digital BW, The Print

Yes the three blacks provides a much less "dotty" matte (or photo) greyscale
but not materially so when compared to a dedicated B&W ink set obviously.

Luminance or rather reflectance is reflected (excuse the pun) in the L* and
density figures I have posted.  L* is very linear (at least for the "darker"
setting), with a maximum not materially different from the 4000 from what I
understand.  Because it is linear and matte dMax remains weak (1.75 at best,
Permajet Alpha is down at 1.55ish), prints print materially lighter than on
a good display without a soft proof and with less contrast/gamma, much like
QTR or even IJC/OPM out of the box - although these RIPs allow greater ink
lay-down and hence you can ensure maximum density for any paper whereas ink
limits can not be adjusted in the Epson driver.  For matte prints you will
still need a "print s curve" or better yet convert the image to the QTR-Gray
Matte Photo icc profile before sending it to the printer.

In short, don't look to the 4800 to massively improve matte output over and
above what can be achieved with a 4000 and QTR (especially with a B&W ink
set).  The new driver does, however, make it materially easier to tone an
image which in itself is a big jump over messing with writing ink curves -
think Imageprint in the Epson driver.  Matte paper density has not changed -
the 4800 uses the same matte black ink and so dynamic range has not been
materially increased.

Photo paper output is a whole different story.  It is very, very tough to
prefer a B&W image on say HPR or PJA versus the same image on, say, EPSG
with the new inks - except in cases where a B&W image does not have large
amounts of deep black.  Where large amounts of "good black" are needed (a
lot of pixels with a value less than, say, 38) the matte ink just can't
compete.  If an image were largely mid-tones to highlights, however, with
little deep black, I would likely prefer the finish of a good matte paper.

Steve 


> From: Clayton Jones <cj@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 16:46:25 -0000
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Advice needed... 4000 vs. 4800???
> 
>> Matte paper output...is not materially advanced in my view.
> 
> Is is smoother, more "dotless" looking, because of 3 blacks in ABW
> mode?
> 
> How about luminance?
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Clayton