Digital BW, The Print

What follows is my personal belief based upon my experience as a  
printer for myself and other photographers. That's it. Please read it  
with that in mind.

Neutrality and longevity are in the eyes of the beholder it seems.  
For example one of my eyes sees everything bluer than the other. My  
brain compensates for that.

  A tungsten bulb does a lot more messing up of my "neutrality" than  
my Selenium ink-set. I'm not worried about lab neutral nor do I want  
to bother with being worried about it. I firmly believe that humans  
are creatures of warmth and change and that we have evolved around  
candle-light. That's why my clients constantly pick warmer mixes of  
ink. I believe that the physical act of adjusting to a warm tone  
(doing a human white balance from warm to white) actually feels good.  
I run K7 neutral as well. When it comes to printing concrete  
buildings the neutral and white-white hahnemuhle works well. If my  
clients want something really cool than I can flush a line with cyan  
or print QTR on an Ultrachrome printer.

I know three galleries off the top of my head that won't accept  
"inkjet" prints even though they are 2 to 4 times more archival per  
Wilhelm/RIT data. I know other archivists that will not accept c- 
prints (and rightly so in my opinion.) And I know many people who are  
still buying $20,000.00 1999 dye-based Iris prints that will fade in  
20 years (possibly.)

I can have a huge debate with myself about the standards employed in  
ink or I can do what the photographer/gallery/archive requires and  
wants. If a photographer wants a higher dMax I'll put a different ink  
in. If they want a longer longevity, I'll put a different ink in. If  
they want "both" I'll max out my under-printing and spray the thing.

There are always trade-offs. The question is how often one is willing  
to switch between them to get a good print--and the right one.

As for Quad/K7 vs K3, I think the quality difference (in fidelity  
terms) speaks for itself. All you need is a loup and some one point  
text printed from both printers and you'll see very clearly. I would  
suggest doing this. (That topic is in the archive I think. About  
three months back.) Now, the 3800 K3 may be a different beast all- 
together as it has 6 droplet sizes. Need sample prints . . .

The new 4880, 7880, 9880 Epson printers will have nine channels (full  
time MK PK). So you will eventually be able to put a Quad neutral ink- 
set in and have full color capability with 6 droplet sizes. Probably  
something like a 2 picoliter dot too. That will be the solution to K3  
and its lack of neutrality and fidelity.

take care,
Walker