Digital BW, The Print

Greetings,

I have been monitoring this forum for nearly ten months now.  I made a posting or two 
some months back and received some really useful feedback.  Beside that, some of the 
work of leading contributors here has proved indespensible to my getting this far down 
the digital road to a better traditional emulsion print.

My problem is essentially a printer driver issue.  I am using an Epson Ultrachrome Pro 
Stylus 7600 with the MIS Eboni inkset.  Unknowingly, the driver I have been using all along 
is the "Gimp" driver that came with my OSX operating system.  For all it offers, it offers no 
means of definitively turning off "color management" ---which is apparently essential to 
producing consistantly good digital negatives.  I have to say, this work flow has produced 
scores and scores of really pleasing 'BO" prints for me.  I am scanning primarily 4X5 
negatives with an Imacon 646 Flextight and the latitude for correction and adjustment is 
phenomenal and inspiring ---I packed up my enlarger weeks ago, hopefully, for good.

I have monitored and participated in several forums over the last several months: PDN, 
APUG, Azo Forum, etc.  Im convinced if there is any group that can help me with this it is 
this group.  The printer is so fundamental to the "Inkjet" print, after the camara work (the 
universal equalizer, after the eye, in all photography) it appears to be the primary tool for 
final output.  And furthermore, this group constitutes perhaps the most active and 
energetic gathering of image makers I have found.  If the expertise to resolve this problem 
is not here, I don't know where to expect to find it.

So, the problem is, in rendering a digital negative (as per Mark Nelson's PDN system) the 
first objective is to get enough ink on the substrate (in my case Pictorico OHP for printing 
on Azo Grade 3) to achieve paper white at standard exposure.  I cannot get there.  Some 
people have indicated that the MIS inkset inherently does not provide enough density.  You 
guys know this inkset.  With the Gimp driver I was able to increase CMY levels to 4 and 
achieve a density that was sufficient to produce an excellent white (with no evident 
inclusion of black ink)---but that was with color management.  Now with the Epson driver 
designed for this printer, color management off, even with the "Ink Density" slider cranked 
to 50 ---no white ---maybe "80% grey".   So, admitting that I am not yet so computer 
savy, it seems there must be a way to achieve increased ink density in a controlled fashion 
without subjecting oneself to the seemingly arbitrary decisions of a mysterious "color 
management" software protocol.  Are there other drivers available out there that provide a 
better alternative to the Gimp or the Standard Epson drivers for this purpose?  Any means 
known to any of you for getting more ink down on the substrate?   

Have others in this forum used digital negatives to produce images by traditional wet 
processes?  I know it runs contrary to the general trajectory of the group ---but it is an 
obvious and irresistable extention of the digital opportunity, and in this context, the 
printer, and one's control of it, become of paramont importance.  

I really appreciate any feedback or guidance anyone can offer.

Thanks,

Nathan Jones
Salt Lake City