Digital BW, The Print

I was trying to avoid getting involved in this thread because it's sounding
more and more like a series of sales pitches.  Some of the information that
is being bounced around is, from my experience and reading, not particularly
illuminating.

My fade tests showed only a very slight advantage to the blended inksets
like the Cone and MIS neutralized carbon inksets over the RIP-controlled
methods that used the least amount of separate colors to achieve the same
hue.  The advantage may have been so small as to be within the normal
"noise" level of my tests. On the other hand, I have not tested these to the
30% fade end point Wilhelm uses.  But to the extent I have been able to
glean any information from my tests and reading, there is no magic in carbon
that preserves the color pigments when they are mixed in.  On the other
hand, I initially thought the carbon under the faded colors might give it a
slight edge in lightness fading, even if not in hue changes.

The OEM K3 approaches will always lose to the dedicated B&W systems because
the Epson OEM solutions use more color.  Likewise the ABW will have a slight
advantage to K3 RGB mode because it uses slightly less color than the ABW
mode.

With *good* carbon like the Epson MK and MIS Eboni MK, and the Epson and MIS
LK, the more carbon to color, the better the lightfastness.  This holds true
in every fade test I've seen.  Wilhelm gets the same pattern in his tests as
I do.

Not all carbon is very lightfast.  In the watercolor field what they call
"amorphous" carbon, for example, is not particularly lightfast.  Graphite,
on the other hand is extremely lightfast.  All carbon is not the same.  The
MIS Eboni, Epson MK and Cone Museum K are very good forms of carbon and will
consistently beat the mixes with color in them.

Of the colors, the cyan is most lightfast, at least when it comes to light
and temperatures within our usual indoor lighting situations.  Cyan is not
particularly tough when it comes to gas attack, and how tests are done can
affect the fade rates.  In normal display, the cyan will far outlast the
magenta that is used in these mixes, whether the inks are separate or
blended.  I suspect we've all seen lots of cyan pictures in window displays.
This is caused by the cyan being much tougher than the other colors.

We obviously have some true believers in their favored approaches here,
which is fine.  I hope the new members of the forum are good at reading
between the lines and seeing who is aligned with whom -- whether due to
experience, type of printing environment, workshops, or whatever.  All of
the systems that are used by the regulars on this forum can produce
excellent results ... but of course MY SOLUTIONS ARE THE BEST!!  ;-)

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com