Digital BW, The Print

Hi Greg,

>I use an Epson 2200 and have yet to achieve true black. I have tried 
>lots of different routines and can't get rid of sometimes bold, 
>sometimes subtle color casts. 
>...am I wasting my time by not changing out all my color inks for 
>blacks? I bought the 2200 as a result of Epson's claims to provide 
>beautiful color or black and white prints. It makes me a little
>nervous to commit my printer to one medium only.

The 2200 is a fine machine but never was able to produce good BW on
it's own.  With the UC inks you'll need a RIP to control it
properly for BW.  So you _can_ do it with the color inks, but with
outside help.  If you switched to grayscale inks, the MIS UT7 set can
be used with the Epson driver for a limited range of control, or with
a RIP for complete control.  It can also be used with other grayscale
inks (with a RIP).  So there are a lot of choices for that printer,
but all require a modified approach of some sort.

The newer 2400 is a whole different animal, with improved inks and
driver software.  It's Advanced Black and White (ABW) mode is like a
simple built in RIP which blends the inks to make really good BW
tones.  Some people use a RIP with it for even greater control, but it
does a fine job out of the box and is the first Epson printer that
really lives up the the good BW hype.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm