Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., SKID Photography 
<skid@b...> wrote:
> I have never heard of a metamerism problem with dye based 
inks...I thought it was strictly a pigment ink
> problem.

Harvey, Mike,

I'll just throw in my two cents here. I seem to be the king of trying 
(read: fighting) to print B/W with color inks. In my neurotic search 
for long life prints and stability, I just switched back (again) to 
Generations4. It supposedly had "less" metamerism than other 
pigments. In the last day or so, I've had to admit to myself that I 
must switch inks AGAIN; the metamerism is simply FAR too 
much. I have been just "looking the other way" in regard to this, 
but it's just gotta happen when I return from this new trip.

I had been using MIS 6-color "1270-type inks" in my 7000, and 
the contrast and punch is killer, with absolutely NO metamerism 
at all. I could ask nothing more from these inks, short of wanting 
them to be stable in fifty or so years. I just put up my first real 
show, and all the prints (36 big ones) are made with the MIS 
dyes, and they look great on the wall; night or day; tungsten or 
daylight.

Just this morning on the way to coffeemaker, in my underwear, I 
walked past this 24x48" print that's thumbtacked to the wall, near 
the front window. It looked noticeably green; so much that it took 
me back. But last night, as I went to bed, I walked past it and it hit 
me how nice it looked -- warm, sepia, perfect.

I have owned a 7500 (sent it back). I have used other 
Generations inks in my first 7000 (stopped). Now, this with the 
Gen4. Thank God I'm leaving for a few weeks so I can not deal 
with this til January.

The question you (I) have to ask is: what good is a print that lasts 
forever, if you don't even like it today?

-MT