Digital BW, The Print

I am not sure what you were expecting.  The matte black ink has not changed at all.  You 
prefer black only and so the other inks aren't so relevant.  The ink droplet size reduction 
from the 2100 to the 4800/2400 isn't that material in the grand scheme of things.   Apart 
from the extra size gain, I doubt you would find black only on the 4800 much different 
than on the 2200.  Even with QTR/IJC the additional LLK is likely of only marginal benefit 
on matte paper at 2880dpi  (it is much more important on photo paper because of 
bronzing).  Your views on Photo paper output are well known and the K3 inks are a photo 
paper oriented advance.  

Having said all that the 2400 will, 'despite' its use of colour ink, likely (based on what I've 
seen from the 4800) produce a dramatically better B&W output than the 21/2200, on 
either matte or photo paper, out of the box.  With the 21/2200 the metamerism on either 
paper was plainly obvious.  On the 4800 (and likely the 2400) it is practically non-existent, 
as best as I have been able to determine, even out of the box.   This was the principal 
reason people looked for alternatives (including the simplist alternative, black only).  I 
challenge anyone to see the colour dots with the naked eye from any distance.  If they 
don't cause metamerism or fading issues then who cares?  The former you can test for 
here and now.  The latter can only be simulated but the results from the simulations 
conducted to date have been very, very positive.  

I'd have no problem highly recommending either the 2400 or the 4800 as a solid and 
significant advance on their forebears.   The out-of-the-box results are dramatically 
better.  The boundary of what CAN be achieved with these printers (using more 
sophisticated techniques and RIPs) on matte paper has likely not changed too much.  This 
is unsurprising when we know the matte black ink has not changed and even greater 
smoothness in greyscale can be achieved with dedicated B&W ink sets.  The boundary of 
what CAN be achieved on photo paper has definitely been dramatically extended.  All in all 
a good step forward, especially for the user that expects a great, satisfying result out-of-
the-box.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones" <cj@c...> wrote:
> Paul,
> 
> >The top part of the ramp appears to be entirely color inks...
> >...Epson is still using color pigments -- C, M, and Y -- to 
> >generate much of its grayscale.
> 
> Amazing.  I have several 4800 prints on different papers and modes
> with PK, and even on the best of them I found the overall look to be
> "unconvincing" on close examination, though it looked excellent at
> first glance.  I don't know if it's the shiny paper or the subtle
> color in the blacks or the slightly veiled highlights (or all of the
> above), but I just can't get excited about it.  I was hoping the 2400
> had a BO mode because the 4800 BO print shows much promise.  But it
> apparently has no BO mode.  
> 
> Now this news - it has pretty much squashed whatever interest I had
> left for the 2400, at least out of the box.  Looks like we're going to
> need QTR/IJC and MIS top-fill carts to make it do what we want.
> 
> Regards,
> Clayton
> 
> 
> Info on black and white digital printing at    
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm