Digital BW, The Print

Steve Kale wrote:

>  Having used 3 I am
>astonished Tyler and Jon want 6 or 7 (I'll forget about those that want 256
>for the moment).  I'd love to see some of these prints (or better a side by
>side of what I can produce vs them) so that I can see what I can strive for
>- alongside my own efforts in capturing good images of course!
>
>  
>
If there's a gain in using 6 or 7 grey inks it doesn't have to be the 
result of the range of grey inks. It wouldn't surprise me that 3 or 4 
shades but distributed over 6 or 7 heads give the same quality. The 
amount of nozzles used being the reason for the better quality.

The 9800 etc has 180 nozzles per head, K3 means 540 nozzles for the B&W 
spine. The 9600 has 96 nozzles per head, K2 means 192 nozzles for the 
B&W spine, K7 on a 9600 means 672 nozzles. This doesn't count the 
differences in droplet sizes, the minimum droplet size of the two 
printers and the differences in weaving. It has to be seen whether there 
will be a visible quality difference between a 9600 with K7 and a 9800 
with the standard K3 both driven by QTR.

Ernst