Digital BW, The Print

>Yup, I sent for the MIS dye black. $24 A PINT.
>
>Jerry

Since Jerry wrote simply "dye" rather than "pigment-dye" or "blended" 
black, I guess what he ordered is not the new MIS Full Spectrum (but 
not Full Spectrum _Quadtone_) black. The following quote is from 
<inksupply.com>, under the "Hot" (but dated mid-November!) button on 
the first page:

>We have been testing some new inks. They are archival, similar to 
>our regular archival inks in terms of permanence. However, they 
>print just like Epson inks and produce vivid, full gamut color 
>prints. They are a blended dyebased-pigmented ink. We have been 
>looking for a long lasting ink that can make dyebased equivalent 
>prints. This is it. We are in the beta phase, and will not release 
>this ink on the website until we have some official, Wilhelm type, 
>permanence testing done. This is going to take at least 6 months, so 
>in the interim, if you wish to try out this new ink, give us a call. 
>We will make you a beta tester. This does not mean it is free, it 
>just means that you can use it now. Price is less than the MIS 
>Archival inks we are selling now.

I called and was told that their Full Spectrum inkset is out of beta, 
and that all its inks, not just the black (a la MediaStreet's 
Enhanced Generations), are dye-pigment hybrids. But they wouldn't say 
in which proportions (I think MediaStreet says their Gen4 black is 25 
percent dye), what the density of the black is (although they do for 
some of their other blacks), etc.

I'd be glad for any additional information about this inkset. I'm 
curious about it because it seems plausible that adding dyes to the 
colors and well as the black might have increased the gamut and 
decreased the metamerism without sacrificing any more of the 
longevity, compared to Gen4, than I'd be willing to trade off.

I don't know that it's black is any blacker than any of their pigment 
blacks or any lighter than their dye black. But obviously it might be 
a half-way house as a substitute for one of them.

As for myself, I'm more interested in the possibility of using the 
whole inkset as an alternative to Generations when I don't need 100+ 
Wilhelm years of longevity. But I'd be glad for any information about 
any of it, on- or off-list if not applicable to BW prints.

Thanks.

Sam             samcc@...