Digital BW, The Print

In a message dated 8/10/06 6:11:50 PM, dgattarino@... writes:


> I am overwelmed by the number of inksets appearing on the market
> for printing Fine Art B&W. The go from 3 densities of grays (like
> Epson K3) up to 7 densities or so.
> My question to the experts (expecially
> Paul Roark for his extensive research in the field) is the following:
> which is a reasonable number of gray densities needed for an inkset
> to make top notch B&W prints?
> 

Well, three is really a minimum, since it allows blending neutral and near 
neutral tones mostly from gray inks, instead of having the lighter tones mixed 
mostly from Light Cyan, Light Magenta, and Yellow, as was the case with systems 
using only one or two levels of black. Beyond that, its a matter of many 
factors. I find some systems that attempt to stack several grays into the process 
actually are less smooth or less detailed for it, instead of more so, but that 
can vary with the profiles/linearization/ink definitions/dithering used. 

Extra inks beyond three or four tend to have more to do with tint control 
that just with extra levels. This means such inksets (be they color inksets with 
multiple grays, or "gray" inksets with subtle color tints in some channels) 
can be more flexible in printing a range of tones and tints, and addressing 
papers which print warmer or cooler more effectively. The dust has not settled yet 
on what the "best" solution is, as both the components available, and the 
expectations of users are changing over time.

C. David Tobie
Product Technology Manager
ColorVision Business Unit
Datacolor Inc.
CDTobie@...
www.colorvision.com


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