Digital BW, The Print

>We R1800 owners are HOPING the advantages over the 1800 
>will be better paper handling, and NO MICROBANDING (please Dear God!)...

I'll second that.

>... the orange sounds very interesting for 
> that-variable sepiatone with only one color to mix?

The color arrangement of the 1900 sounds very interesting: 

"... cyan, magenta and yellow inks, ... red, orange ...
The new orange ink replaces the blue ink ...
It allows ... significant enhancements in colour reproduction 
for natural skin tones. Output also features more vivid oranges 
and an expansion in the red colour gamut. 
The magenta and yellow inks have been reformulated ...
The resin coating ... has been redesigned..."
(http://www.dpreview.com/news/0710/07100401epsonr1900.asp)

It sounds like this is a really new inkset and color scheme.  It'll be
interesting to see what exactly they've done and how they'll map RGB input
signals to their inks.  It does not sound, however, like they've added what
I'd like to see -- a blue that as a single toner offsets the carbon tone.  I
also think they still face the same problem with low gamut neutral tones.
I'd like to see these new colors wrapped around a carbon core.  Maybe we'll
get that when they come out with a 12-channel head.  Then again, I don't
need much these days for the B&W I prefer.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com