Right now, I'm using PKN stock that was purchased some 6 months ago. I use it at 100%, and dilute it to 32%, 10%, 3.2%, and 1%, with MIS "clear base stock". The last two positions in a 7 slot printer are finished off with Eboni and glop. Eboni is only used on matte papers, or when making digital negatives (long story) for contact printing. Glop is used on gloss papers. Bronzing (rather metallic looking) in the mid grays is quite annoying, unless I bring in 10% glop from 0-20% in the curve, and increase to 25% glop from 20% to 70% in the curve, beyond which I can let the glop head back to 10%, or even down to 0%. Makes a relatively good print on most glossy stocks, but it's duller than the paper base, which is why I bring in some glop, even at 0%, to dull the whites to match. I've asked MIS on the phone, more than once, about a "new base" PKN, or a "new base" version of the "clear base stock" and always been told that there is no such thing. So the first part of this question is, is there really a new PKN and/or "clear base stock" to thin with, and what's the "incantation" I have to recite to MIS to get it? The second option is to move the whole operation over to K3, drained from Epson 220ml carts. If I try this, I'd need to reverse engineer K3 a bit, see approximately what the dilutions of the three strengths are (easy enough to interpolate by looking at density compared to the densities of my 1, 3.2, 10, 32, and 100% PKN). If any of my dilutions fall between the K3 dilutions, then just mixing different proportions of K3 should get me to where I want to be. But some of my five (maybe 3.2 and 1%) might be lighter than the lightest K3, so there will be need to dilute. Has anyone diluted K3 yet? Any idea what would work? Back to MIS clear base? OK, that's enough for one day. ;)
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MIS "new base" and diluting K3
2005-11-02 by koloshor
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