Digital BW, The Print

> ... It stands to reason that
> the possibility of differential fading would be greater for the inkset
> with the most color pigments. And a variable tone inkset is going to
> have to have more color pigments than a fixed tone inkset. 

No, that's not necessarily correct.  The variable tone inkset image that is
printed with a neutral curve has essentially the same amount of color
pigments as a neutral monotone inkset where those pigments are pre-mixed.
The difference is whether the colorants are totally pre-mixed into the
entire inkset or whether they are contained in separate inks (still mixes of
carbon and color).  Then the ratio of the separate ink and the pure carbon
ink is varied to get a range of tones.

It is the Epson 2400 K3 "Advanced B&W" approach that uses more than the
minimum necessary color pigments.  Additionally, if the variable tone inkset
is printed with the sliders, there is more than the minimum color added.
However, variable tone inksets, when they are controlled via curves, use
essentially as little color pigments as is possible to get to the final tone
desired.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com