Digital BW, The Print

I, too, wonder about the 1280.  I've gone through 2 of them and have
concluded they are more prone to problems than the other printers I've had.
For 13" paper, however, the choices are not that encouraging.  I have a 2400
that I use of color, but I'm not sure it's worth the price if one is just
printing B&W.  Frankly, I use my 220, 2200, and 7500 for B&W.  If 13" paper
is required, the refurbished 2200s are still available, it appears.  See
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=32991459
<http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=32991459&ref
=wex> &ref=wex   Even the refurbished 2200s are not cheap, but they have, I
believe, a much better track record for reliability than the 1280.  There
are lots of workflows for them - UT7 is like UT2, and the QTR workflows I'm
now experimenting with are on the 2200.  So, if one needs more than a C88 or
220 (refurb only), the 2200 might be a contender.

 

Paul

www.PaulRoark.com <http://www.paulroark.com/>  

 

 

  _____  

From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Philip
Schwartz
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 9:57 AM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Entry Pathway to B&W Printing

 

You are bound to get a lot of different answers, but here is my two cents:

There is nothing wrong with the 1280/UT2 combination, but if you
are just starting, I would suggest a 4-color printer like the 
Epson C88. You can use MIS inks, it will make beautiful prints,
you will only have to deal with 4 cartridges, and this printer 
can be had refurbished for $59. You could use MIS EZ ink and 
control output with the Epson driver sliders. If you want more
control you can use any of the other MIS ink sets. I use UT-FSN
with great results in a C86. The 1280 is getting awfully long
in the tooth, and could use some updates, like a smaller droplet
size and individual cartridges. By the time you become proficient
it may be discontinued. That said, if you need to print larger than
letter size the 1280 becomes a good choice.

Your biggest decision is how you are going
to profile and linearize your inks -- Quadtone RIP, Photoshop
adjustment or transfer curves, ICC files with embedded curves, 
blah, blah, blah. If you use the EZ inks I think you can avoid 
this complexity, at least to get started. As you progress you will 
probably want to at least experiment with some of the other schemes.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhit
<mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint%40yahoogroups.com>
eThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "monkeytumble"
<spamhole@...> wrote:
>
> The purpose of this post is request knowledgeable input for someone
> about to enter B&W digital printing. Specifically, I'm looking for
> confirmation that the pathway I'm considering should result in
> successful entry to high quality B&W digital printing. The entry
> pathway I'm considering is an Epson 1280 printer and MIS UT2 cartridge
> inks, which will be used with Photoshop CS2 on a PC running Windows XP.
> 
> If you are knowledgeable and would think that another entry pathway
> would be better, I'd like to hear your suggestions.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jay Decker
> Kennewick, WA
>

 



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