Digital BW, The Print

> ... There seems to be a preference toward MIS over 
> Cones B&W inksets. Could someone fill me in on the reason? ...

I was reluctant to respond to this.  I'll try to keep it as objective as
possible.

What's best for any individual depends on the circumstances.  What's best
for all of us is that we have 2 good competing sellers of pigment-based B&W
inksets, as well as increasing competition from the major printer
manufacturers.

Some factors have been mentioned -- MIS for glossy, for example.

MIS bulk ink sales are very affordable.

The Cone Piezo approach tends to emphasize smoothness, for example currently
with many different densities of "monochrome" inks.  

My approaches (which generally use MIS inks but actually started with Piezo
inks) tend to emphasize simplicity and cost (for example the C86-88 "EZ" and
other similar approaches).  My approaches are also geared to flexibility --
the variable-tone (UT2, UT7, etc.) and color managed (beta UT-3D and the
experiments with the 2400 Y=Carbon setup) approaches.

Cone does good marketing, which I think helps those in the service bureau
business.  The latest Piezo inks appear to work very well in the large
format printers and with matte papers, though I've never had a chance to use
or study the results.  

I stopped using Cone inks due to being banned from discussing my
"Variable-piezo" inkset approach on his forum.  I probably would have
switched to MIS inks due to price once I started doing fade testing. Both
MIS and Cone use state of the art pigments that are extremely lightfast.  I
consider them equal (which made the MIS inks very appealing).

We are all influenced by our circumstances.  So, the fact that I usually get
MIS ink for free now does encourage me to experiment with them.  But, as you
can see from 
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/message/79143 
I also recommend Epson inks sometimes.  Epson PK is giving be a better dmax
in this experiment, and Epson magenta has done better than MIS magenta
(which I avoid in my B&W inkset formulas).  I simply can't afford to do all
of what I do if I have to buy all the input inks.  

The suggested setup for the 2400, above, is my objective best guess at what
will give the optimum B&W + limited gamut color solutions for the 4800 and
above.  It appears to result in excellent B&W (ABW mode) and color-managed
RGB workflows.  For the large format printers, especially, I'm becoming
increasingly inclined to recommend non-blended ink approaches for
non-service bureau settings due to the separation of inks in the lines that
I've experience with blended inks.  I also like the ability to buy off the
shelf, inks from competing vendors for all the positions.

(I have published entire formulas for making B&W inksets from Epson inks.
However, no major player has opted to pick them up due to the cost of the
inputs.)

So, as usual, between the excellent choices we have (Piezo, MIS, and Epson
mostly), what is best depends on one's circumstances, but we all benefit
from as much competition as possible among the sellers. 

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com