Digital BW, The Print

John

According to Epson, as noted in previous posts, it uses all three blacks and
potentially some colour ink when "black" is selected for any paper other
than "plain paper".  So you are looking at a greyscale with at least 3Ks
which is why it is so smooth.

Steve


> From: John Broski <jbroski@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 20:56:04 -0700
> To: Digital B&W List <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Digital BW] Epson 4800... Black-Only Lives! (???)
> 
> Hello All,
> 
> My new 4800 arrived today (bought from TheNerds.net, $1730 plus $72
> shipping, no tax to California).  I set it up, updated the software, did a
> head alignment, and was printing.  I have only the PK ink... MK is not
> included in package.  So far I've only tried the "Premium Luster 250" paper
> that was in the box (they supply it for the head alignments).  I assigned
> the "Pro4800 PLPP250" profile in Photoshop and told the printer to do no
> color management.
> 
> After testing some color (gorgeous, right out of the box) and B&W using the
> Advanced B&W mode (also gorgeous, though both B&W and color seem to show a
> bit of gloss differential), I decided to try black only.  I expected the
> "text-only quality" settings that others have mentioned... 720 dpi, etc.
> 
> Surprise!  When you go to the "Color" dropdown and select Black (the other
> possibilites are Color and Advanced B&W Photo), then go to "Advanced", all
> the photo-quality options are right there!  Under "Print Quality",
> specifically, you can choose from Fine (720), Super Fine (1440), and Super
> Photo (2880).
> 
> I've only tried 2880 so far.  Makes a VERY SMOOTH BO print... practically
> dotless, very good black density, and no banding at all.  (Of course, my
> standards of comparison are a 1270 and a 2000P!)  I checked with a powerful
> loupe and saw no colors.  (The same loupe easily revealed color dots in the
> Advanced B&W version of the same print.)  A touch of Print Shield cured the
> slight gloss differential.  That's the good news.  Bad news?  The ink tone
> is quite warm with a slight greenish cast, especially around 80% density on
> a step wedge.  (At least, on Premium Luster paper it is.) Not the prettiest
> thing I've seen.  But maybe with a PK-N equivalent on board, or Eboni on
> matte paper... ?
> 
> I can only assume Epson has just recently enabled the photo-quality options
> for BO in the newer driver versions... I'm using v5.52, released on June 30.
> Or did I misunderstand the comments of others on the list? Perhaps the BO
> quality limitations in the driver only happen with MK ink?
> 
> John Broski