Digital BW, The Print

The other day I tested the K3 x8xx printers by comparing an A4-size  
B&W print that I had made on my 7600 using ImagePrint 6 with a print  
made at a dealer on the 4800 using the Epson Driver in Advanced B&W  
mode. By way of background: I have been printing on Epson Premium  
Semi-Matte paper using PK inks because I want to get deeper blacks  
than is possible with MK on matte papers; but these prints have so  
much bronzing and gloss differential that they are acceptable only  
after being laminated with a glossy laminate, which eliminates these  
problems and also provides the additional benefit of making the  
blacks deep and rich, and gives increased saturation on color prints  
-- the prints are stunning after lamination.

The purpose of the test was to see how the K3 inks compare with the  
Ultrachrome inks: the result is that, for the picture I used -- which  
had a good mount of black and almost-black areas and also some very  
strong bronzing and gloss differential problems on the Ultrachrome  
ink print -- the latter two problems were completely absent on the K3  
print. Moreover, the blacks on the K3 print were slightly darker than  
on the Ultrachrome print, but this was not so obvious, as I had to  
look carefully at the prints next to each other to see this.

The dealer made another print for me on the 4800 using the Advanced  
B&W mode, this time on a glossy paper (Tecco MediaWare): this print,  
again, had no bronzing or gloss differential and it looked stunning:  
just like the 7600 prints on Semi-Matte after they have been laminated.

Now, from these two test prints on Semi-Matte, I  could also see some  
differences between using the Epson Driver versus ImagePrint 6, but I  
hasten to state that this was not a proper test, which should be done  
by printing on  the same printer. Nevertheless, the result was:

1. The print with the Epson Driver Advanced B&W mode had no color  
cast, and was similar to my Ultrachrome ImagePrint 6 print in terms  
of being neutral.

2. The Epson Driver for the K3 printers in Advanced B&W mode puts  
down a light-gray rectangle going out to the full paper size (A4 in  
this case), which was very visible in the the print  the dealer made  
because the sheet of paper I used had been cut from a roll and was a  
little larger than A4 size, so that the light gray "border" around  
the image (which was a little less than A4 size) showed clearly  
against the white of the paper. Apparently the Epson puts down this  
light gray rectangle "under" the image as part of the way that it  
prints without a color cast. However, it means that the "paper white"  
is not a bright as the original paper, which is also true for the  
highlights in general: looking at the prints side-by-side, I could  
see that highlights in the ImagePrint were lighter (brighter) -- I'd  
say this is true all the way to the quarter tones -- meaning the the  
ImagePrint print has a larger dynamic range. To me this is an  
important consideration, and gives a strong advantage to ImagePrint.

3. The ImagePrint print has more shadow detail than the one made with  
the Epson Driver Advanced B&W mode. This is quite obvious and is true  
at least from the three-quarter tones to black, and and there is  
better differentiation in the blackest tones in the ImagePrint print.

4. Looking at the two prints with a 10x loupe I can see that the  
dither of ImagePrint is very obviously much  better than that of the  
Epson Driver Advanced B&W mode, the latter looking like it lays down  
a "screen". However, looking at the prints with the naked eye the  
superiority of the ImagePrint dither was not obvious because the  
picture I used for the test is fairly high contrast and has only a  
few small areas of subtle tone transition, mainly in the quarter and  
mid-tones. Going by my general printing experience, I would think  
that in a picture that has a much larger proportion of its area with  
gradual and subtle tone transitions, the advantage of the better  
ImagePrint dither would be much more obvious and compelling.

--Mitch/Bangkok