Digital BW, The Print

Hi group,

I just finished running some BLACK ONLY (BO) print tests comparing MIS
Eboni Matte Black pigment and the new Pantone Matte Black pigment in
my Epson Pro 4000 printer.

Printed BO with Eboni, purged all the Eboni out of the printer,
installed the Pantone matte, ran a bunch of prints to ensure that the
Pantone was the ONLY pigment in the line, and printed BO with Pantone.
 Used same paper, same image file, etc.

The bottom line:  I really can't see any difference.  Same tone, same
everything.  Final prints look identical.

I don't know who makes the Eboni pigment or the Pantone pigment, but
after seeing the prints, I'd bet money that its the same pigment
formulation from the same supplier.

I'm in the process of testing the complete Pantone inkset for the
4000, but it is going to take awhile.  Since I'm not setup to do
custom profiling, I'm going to use the profiles that Pantone has on
their website, which seem to cover most of the popular papers - Epson,
Red River, Moab, Hawk Mtn, Premier Art, etc.  I don't know how good
they are.  Guess I'll find out.  It will be interesting to see how QTR
works with the complete Pantone inkset and the Pantone blacks.  

Cheers,

Tony