Digital BW, The Print

> ...
> While we are on the subject of Bernds driver comparison, ...

As long as we are comparing, I was trying to see if I should get the ver. 6
Piezo for my 1160, but my observations & questions would fit here too.

The blacks printed with the Epson driver are darker on my 1160 than are the
blacks printed with the Piezo driver.  For, example, with the 21-step test
file printed with both on EAM, scanned in grayscale, with auto levels
applied to the entire scan of both test strips, I get the following
Photoshop Histogram measure of the depth of the 100% patch blacks:

Piezo driver:  17.38

Epson driver:   9.25

(256 scale)

A lower number indicates a darker black.

So, the 100% black with the Piezo driver would be about like the 97% black
printed with the Epson driver.

Also, while using the Piezo driver (ver. 513e) recently I was reminded of an
irritating characteristic.  I can't do any other work in Photoshop while the
Piezo driver is working.  I can continue to work when the Epson driver is
printing.

Has there been any improvement in these two characteristics with Ver. 6 of
the Piezo driver?

On a different note, I find the Woolf workflow with FS inks to have
surprisingly good (smooth) highlights on my 1160, but not quite equal to the
Piezo driver's performance.  I'm not sure most would see the difference,
however.

The shadows are where I see the Woolf workflow falling a bit short.  That
workflow shows both more roughness than the Piezo driver, and there are more
prominent vertical lines in the ramp of the test file.  (Going to 24 bit and
separating the color curves just slightly helps break up these lines.)

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com