Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Andrew McIntyre" 
<amcintyre@b...> wrote:
 
> Nevertheless I continue to be furious with Conetech. As a customer 
>whose first order was worth £300+ I expected the courtesy of a reply 
>at the very least. On visting the piezo website I found clogs to 
>feature more prominently than print quality so I've decided to give 
>the system a miss.

Andrew,

Have you tried calling Jon by telephone?  I have spoken with both Jon 
and Bill Burgh many times, although sometimes it has taken them a 
week to get back to me.  Right now, I suppose they are getting ready 
for the PMA show in Orlando, Florida but not an excuse to not return 
calls.

I remember a few months ago that IJM claimed that of their entire 
installed user base (which was quoted to me at 3,000 once and 10,000 
a second time) only 30 people have had problems with clogging inks. 
Well, I personally know of 10 here in South Florida including myself. 
I know that IJM is aware of the problem and is not very pleased about 
it. Rumors point to the release of a newly formulated ink next week 
at PMA that supposedly fixes the problem. I have seen the 
new "Neutral" colored ink and oddly enough it is very similar in tone 
to the MIS FS inkset. It does not seem to be as neutral/cool as I 
expected. 

I know this is not a consolation, but don't give up on your quest to 
obtain grayscale prints. Once you nail down the workflow and get 
everything working you will be very pleased. As time goes on, the 
inks and papers will only get better. I have no doubt that someday 
the longevity and quality will exceed traditional photographic 
materials. Companies like Kodak are pouring large sums of R&D monies 
into pigment and dye research. My personal guess is that we will see 
100 year dyes very soon.

Mike