Digital BW, The Print

Hello Patrick,

>Newbie here.  I'm looking for a good black and white printer. Any 
>thoughts on the captioned printers.  I now use a Canon i9900 which is 
>bad, very bad,  on black and whites. 

The 2400, being a K3 ink printer with ABW mode, will do excellent BW
as is, without need for extra RIP software.  The 1800 requires a RIP
to do good BW.  The 2400/K3/ABW mode mixes color inks, including
Yellow, with 3 grays to get BW tones.  There are some advantages to
using the K3 inks, especially when using RC type glossy papers or the
new fiber type glossy papers.

The 1800 can be used several ways, all RIP controlled: 
1) With gray inks toned with color inks, like the 2400 but without the
yellow (and not with K3 inks).
2) With toned grayscale inks, which use color pigments blended in with
them as toners
3) Due to Paul Roark's recent work there is another option of using a
3-channel Black Only technique (BO3).

All of the above can produce beautiful gallery quality prints, and
each has it's pros and cons.  None can be said to be the best.  It's
just a matter of finding the mix of hardware, software, effort,
complexity and technical involvement which suits you best.

I know this doesn't get into specifics, but I hope it will a helpful
overview.

Regards,
Clayton


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