Digital BW, The Print

Hello Bruce,

>If he says he sees metamerism, I believe him.

I can vouch for that.  K3 is far better than UC, but there is still a
tiny bit of metamerism.  I can see slight changes under different
lighting, but it's miniscule compared to UC.  Note that this statement
applies only to certain settings.  I've found that some combinations
of ABW and paper type have more obvious coloration and metamerism, and
others minimize it almost to nonexistence.  So it varies.


>The monochrome-from-color prints that were well lit also showed 
>some color -- I'm particularly annoyed by the way the color seems 
>to shift back and forth as the print's tones go from dark to light. 

That's been my experience too.  I've never liked the color ink
approach, so it was with trepidation that I got the 2400.  I figured
I'd turn it into an Eboni/QTR machine ASAP.  My initial trials were
affirming that, but I've discovered there are some settings that
reduce the effect to barely noticeable.  You have to look for it.


>I'm hopeful that the K7 inkset will really minimize this, but 
>I'm not in a position to test it now, so I'm in wait-and-see mode.

I'm also very interested in hearing K7 reports.  I'm finding the 2400
to be better than I thought it would be (at least for the time being I
can make prints I can live with), but am still very uneasy about
having color inks in there, especially yellow, for longevity reasons.
I just don't like the idea.  And I'm also unsure how putting Eboni in
it is going to affect things.  I also have a working QTR-BO curve, so
am working that angle as well.  

Cone hasn't advertised K7 as being pure carbon, just pure pigment, so
I'm guessing there is some sort of cool toner in there.  So it's
probably still true that Eboni BO is the only pure carbon solution
that can create a range of cold to warm tones without any color ink. 
They've all got colors in some form or another.  So the jury is still
out for me too.

Regards,
Clayton


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