Digital BW, The Print

I just received a two sample prints from Allen Takichi Maertz of 
Lincoln Ink & Papers, www.lincolninks.com, printed with their 
Spectratone monochrome inks.  One print is on Oce watercolor paper, 
and was not impressive.  The other is on Ilford 9 mil Glossy paper 
and is most impressive.  The blacks are incredible.  I measured the 
reflectance of the zero patch to be 2.4!  This I compared to a zero 
patch reading of Cone's inks on German Etching Board (Orwell) which 
is 1.63.

The sample was printed on an Epson 3000 as a CMYK file using the 
Adobe Pressready RIP.  I can see the dither pattern, but overall it's 
not too bad.  

The print on the Ilford glossy looks very much like a photo RC glossy 
print, which is not the look I prefer for my fine art prints, but 
that black is hard to dismiss.

I'm going to order a sample of the paper to try with Cone's inkset.  
They'll probably smear, but it's worth a try.  I'll also order a set 
of Spectratone carts for my 3000 and print through Cone's RIP and my 
Wasatch RIP.

I'll post my findings.

Ron