Digital BW, The Print

Steve,

>Yeah at 2880dpi and 3.5pl I reckon you've got to have a very 
>good set of eyes to see any dots without a decent magnifier.  

It's not so much a matter of seeing dots, it's just a grainy look
(what I call Digital Tri-X) that is most obvious in the midtones. 
That's why images with important smooth midtone areas can look weak,
while others look great.  I will on occasion as a last resort print
something with UTx3 because of that, even though other aspects of the
print may be weaker than with BO.  I haven't kept exact score, but I'd
guess around 98% or 99% of my prints are BO.


>I simply can't believe that your eye can pick up a modest change 
>in dither or dot size at 2880dpi when the dots aren't visible
>but I could be wrong.

I have no idea what I picked up on.  The print is simply the smoothest
BO print I've seen.  One thing that may be a factor is that my 2200
will print a smoother BO print with PK than with MK.  I suspect the
dither pattern or dot size or both are changing.  I tried to fool it
once by putting a PK chip on a cart with Eboni to see if I could get
the smoother look, but it looked awful as the ramp was totally screwed
up - most likely is different because of the nature of the ink.  So I
suspect the same may be true with the 4800, and an MK BO print may not
be as smooth.  Another side to this is that the 4000 has a more random
BO dither pattern than the 2200 (which looks like a bunch of
squigglies) and produces a slightly smoother BO print, so it's
possible a 2400 MK BO print, if there can be such a thing, may not be
as smooth as a 4800 one.  So there are still lots of unanswered
questions.  But I've learned enough that I'm not going to buy a 2400
right now.  I'll wait for more reports to come in.


>Here again you may find Epson has helped if they have really
>neutralised the LK (and LLK) ink.  

Based on what I saw in the PK-ABW samples they are still warm. The
toning appears to come from the color dots, as Paul's scans showed.
But I'll wait and see what users report.



>Although I thought Carl was using an already neutral MIS LK-N.

Perhaps he's tried many things, but I have a print of his that is
50:50 UT7-LM:UT7-LC and it looks real nice.


 
>But as you head down this route it is a sliding scale towards
>smoothness and away from that mystical "luminance" you mention

Not necessarily.  QTR/2K prints are extremely smooth without
sacrificing the luminance.



>...kind of a Goldilocks situation where you want smoothness but 
>not too much.  I say "mystical luminance" because while a 
>greyscale made of just one ink versus several can have the same
>luminance (in a technical sense) there is some quality about
>the former which you prefer.  

It's interesting that you apply "mystical" to something which you
don't personally perceive (as if to imply that your knowledge is so
superior that if you don't perceive it it can't possibly be true), and
continue to rely on technical theory for everything, which may be an
explanation for why you don't perceive some things and continually use
expressions such as "I can't possibly understand why..." or "I can't
imagine that anyone..." or "I simply can't believe that..." (see
above) and so on, in your posts.  You have a pattern of applying these
subtle put-downs (and sometimes not so subtle) to things other people
say here.  There are some people who have been insulted to such a
degree that they avoid this forum now because of it.  

One thing that I and many others love about BO and refer to as
luminance, and which is clearly visible to us, is nothing mystical at
all.  It is very simply that bare uncovered paper surface is allowed
to show through between the dots.  This paper surface has a reflective
quality that imparts a wonderful glow to the print.  When anything
covers it (even something clear or light enough that the "whiteness"
may read the same on an instrument), this reflective quality is
diminished and the difference shows - it's the "veiled look" that I
refer to.  It's really that simple.  The degree of it varies among the
different full ink systems, and it is clearly noticeable to anyone who
is used to the sparkling glow of BO prints.   

The QTR/2K prints that some are experimenting with so far seem to
preserve the luminance quite nicely.  Steve Karafyllakis is doing
some gorgeous stuff that way.  The problem he's encountering is
finding an LK mix that will work satisfactorily on different papers. 
That's proving to be the real challenge.  The 2K part has proven
itself.


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm