Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Steve Kale"
<stevekale@b...> wrote:
> Ink sets such as UT7 use three.  FSN has 4 (if I recall correctly).
 Epson K3 has three.  Not so 
> long ago there was chatter from UT7 users and, I believe, from Paul
that three Ks were not 
> necessary on the small picolitre printers.  I used an ink setup
similar to Carl Schofield which 
> ran just 2 shades of K for a particular paper (plus sepia toner for
sepia prints).  Now I hear 
> chatter of Piezotones (?) coming out with 8 shades of grey... The
dedicated B&W ink 
> manufacturers had a great niche when Epson only had 1 or 2 Ks.  The
way was left open for 
> people to remix/dilute ink to provide B&W printers with better tonal
gradation (less dots) with 
> quad/hex/sep setups.   I am interested in hearing from specialist
B&W printers who still think 
> that we need more than three shades of K and why.  

Five or six seems to be good for making digital negatives to print on
photographic papers. You get a much smoother dither that way. With two
colors (like Ultrachrome and QTR), you're frequently taking a pattern
that might have LK at 80% (almost full laydown)and just adding PK (or
MK) dots. These have much more "stopping ppwer" and show in the print
as white speckles. Ideally, you want minimal crossovers and maximum
coverage. This uses a lot of ink, but produces an excellent negative.

Well, you asked...