Digital BW, The Print

A couple of quick obervations.

I guess I must have been bored last night, otherwise I would not have 
been doing this stuff.

Well anyway, I pulled the CIS on my 1280 and loading the Epson 
Lightfast Dyes. I then printed a black ink only of a image that had a 
long tonal scale. The 1280's dither pattern with the Epson driver is 
really pretty amazing. I compared the print to one made on the 7000 
with the MIS FS inks and the Piezo driver. The first thing that 
amazed me is the density of the black. The second thing was that 
visually you can not see dots or dither w/o a loupe.

The whole reason I brought this up is that recently I have been 
trying to get a truly neutral gray print. We hung four prints against 
a wall in a local gallery. A Piezo, an MIS FS, a selenium toned 
silver gelatin, and a platinum print. The Piezo definitely had a 
green cast, the MIS a slightly less but still green cast. The 
platinum was warm and the selenium toned silver was the most neutral.

Then I was told about the newest Epson lightfast dyes coming in March 
with the new series of 8000 printers. These dyes are said to be 50-75 
year dyes. I don't know if this is true, but at this point it is 
hearsay. 

I have also been told that black only prints on the Epson 10000 are 
amazing. Much like the 1280, only better and bigger.

So much to do, so little time.

Mike