Digital BW, The Print

I posted a similar question to this a while ago when I wasn't happy with NK7 Dmax, I was surprised to read Paul's comment about the EBONI black being okay to swap into the system, because when I asked the same question several people replied saying it was not that simple, including Jon Cone himself. 

From memory I think the main reason was that the 'tone' of the eboni black is not the same as the NK7 inks. Also some people said it has a different 'flow' property to the NK7's and might cause problems like clogging. So that scared me off and I never tried it.

Instead I found this solution, and get a Dmax of 1.65 now on Hahn PhotoRag. Which is okay I guess.

When ready to print I convert my image from GG 2.2 to Adobe RGB '98 in Photoshop and then go to IMAGE then ADJUSTMENTS then SELECTIVE COLOUR. I then select the BLACK channel, and just make the blacks +15 or so darker. Then I convert back to Grey Gamma 2.2 and print as normal through QTR. 

It's actually a variation of a method I found on the Piezography website, there technique involved selecting the blacks and making them darker through a quick mask or something??? It's basically doing the same thing as my way but it's more complicated and I couldn't understand it!? 

Anyways check out the website and give my way a go too, see what you think.
I hope this helped.

P.S   There was a Portfolio Black ink that Jon Cone used to make for the old 4 Black system that gave a much better DMAX. Over 1.75 I think. It wasn't Pure Pigment though. Maybe you could swap that in??? What do others think of that out there???


Thanks