Digital BW, The Print

Hello Chris,

You would not want to use the 220 OEM inks because they are dye.  They
should be replaced with MIS pigment color inks, probably the PRO
series (someone else please verify this, I'm out of my area of
expertise here).  Replace the K/C/M/LC/LM/Y with K/LK/C/M/LC/LM.  With
these you could use QTR to use primarily the blacks with colors as toners.

For grayscale inks either the R2 inks in various mixtures, with or
without QTR and/or curves/profiles, or the 3D series, etc.



>Forgot to ask: doesn't the 2200 have a smaller nozzle than the 220
>(which I believe would be an advantage)?  

If you mean the droplet size, no I don't think it'smaller than the
220.  The 2200 has 4pl droplets, I'm not sure what the 220 has - it
may even be 3.5.  Either way, that's not the issue.  The 2200 is a
slightly higher precision macine I think.  I say that only because the
2200 BO prints have a slightly finer dither pattern than my R200, the
precursor to the 220.  I think it's a non-issue for all practical
purposes.


>The other thing that appealed to me was the ability to leave the
>EPSON color inks (or MIS color inks) in and use either BO printing or
QTR for B&W work without sacrificing the color capability.

For color printing you would still want pigment inks for longevity,
even if you stick with K/C/M/LC/LM/Y.  That is one advantage of the
2200 because it has 7 ink positions, which adds the 2nd black (LK). 
Doing that with the 220 would eliminate the 1st option above.  You
really need at least 2 blacks for that.  So if that is more important
then you might want to go for the 2200.

In that case you still might want to replace the Epson UC inks with
MIS colors because the latest MIS inks are more lightfast than UC. 
The 2200 UC inks, from what I gathered from posts here, were never a
very satisfactory solution for BW prints due to metamerism and
longevity issues.  The K3 inks and the MIS equivalents are gaining
much greater acceptance.

A number of people here are using the 2200 for some very ingenious ink
combinations, driven with a RIP of course.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm