Digital BW, The Print

That was well thought out, Bruce. Well said.

I took a slightly different approach, because I don't have the room for a
second printer, and I commonly print in color. I have an Epson 4000 with the
original Ultrachrome inks, and I am using StudioPrint with the GretagMacbeth
Eye One spectro.

I have learned a ton in the process, but moving into the CMYK world was a
bit of a struggle at first.

$.02

Andy 

-----Original Message-----
From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
hogarth@...
Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2005 3:51 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Best of the best, what to buy?

palladiumprinter1 wrote:

> I am looking for a printer to do B/W printing. I need the best of the 
> best as far as quality is concerned and need to make prints at least 
> 16x20 in size.
>
> Fortunatley, I have a large job and money is not an issue.
>
> Based upon today's state of the art what would be the best combination 
> of machine/ink/quality/rip etc. available.
>
> Thanks

All you need are four things really. A printer, an inkset, a RIP of some
kind, and a densitometer or spectrophotometer to linearize the
printer/ink/substrate you are using.

The printer of choice for B&W right now would have to be the 7600/9600 Epson
LF printers. This is because the third party inksets work with them, and if
you want the best of the best, you aren't going to print with color inks.
Personally, I've got a 7600, and I've regretted not having a 9600 a lot. If
you've got the money and the space, get the bigger machine.

For an inkset, it depends on whether you want a variable tone or a fixed
tone inkset. If you have a particular tone you are after and are willing to
do the work to nail that tone, then the MIS UT7 inks would work for you. If
you want a fixed tone ink that gives you the most stable tone you can get
from black to white, then the Cone PiezoTones may be appropriate.

If you are using the PiezoTones, you could use the StudioPrint RIP which is
excellent. You could use Roy Harrington's quad tone rip (QTR) for either.

If you are using StudioPrint, you can use a wide range of densitometers and
spectrophotometers. If you are using QTR, I think it only supports the
Gretag i1 equipment currently.

http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/bw2/index.html
http://www.inksupply.com/qn.cfm
http://www.ergosoftus.com/studioprint/
http://www.quadtonerip.com/html/QTRoverview.html
http://usa.gretagmacbethstore.com/index.cfm/act/catalog.cfm/CFID/17719396/CF
TOKEN/23956558/subcategory/Eye%2DOne%20Solutions/category/Eye%2DOne/browse/n
ull/MenuGroup/Menu%20USA%20New.htm

There are of course more competition than just this.

Faced with your situation a couple of years ago, I ended up with the
following:

Epson 7600
Cone PiezoTone inks (I'm still using the older selenium Piezotones. K7 was
just released) Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308gsm paper Breathing Color Brilliance
II canvas StudioPrint RIP Eye-One Photo

The resulting prints have exquisite shadow detail with light airy highlights
and a full range of tones. They are just beautiful. The only thing I miss
about darkroom prints is the seriously deep blacks of which they are
capable. But in the greater scheme of things, that's not a great loss in my
book.
--
Bruce Watson


















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