Digital BW, The Print

At 04:14 AM Thursday 10/25/2007, you wrote:
>Well, I'm going to give it a shot. If the black is horrible, I'll put
>the Epson dye back in the black slot and use the lyson greys. I *know*
>I like the Epson black.

A few points:
1. If you do try Lyson and want to go back to Epson, you will have to purge the ink head using cleaning cartridges as the Lyson and Pigment inks are not compatible.
2. Am I right in believing that you have been using EEM/Archival Matte? Have you tried PremierArt Matte BW? It has good Dmax and is double sided. From IT supplies it is about the same price as EEM and is acid & lignin-free - and, because it is double-sided, you end up saving on proofing.
3. I used the HP7660 for about a year - it's just hogging desk space now and I'm thinking of putting it in my spare room. I've gone so far as to tear up my old HP grey dye prints on the HP Premium Plus paper because, although the glossy paper had good Dmax and no metamerism, bronzing or gloss differential (unless you blew out the highlights), there was a green hue that was far worse a problem for me than the reduced dmax of matte paper on my Epson 2100, which I've been in love with ever since I bought it. So you could try an HP printer (HP Photosmart 8750?) or a second-hand A4 printer (although they are *very* cheap new) and try printing on matte paper and then spraying with Lyson Print Guard or PremierArt Print Shield to seal the dyes (be aware that they are very toxic). But there is a green hue which you probably won't like. I have a friend with an HP who has experimented with matte papers and if you like I can ask him what paper worked best - contact me off list and I'll pass on your inquiry to him if you like.
4. MIS make a universal black that works on glossy and matte papers and it does have dye in it. Maybe someone can tell you how the dmax compares with matte black.
5. Media Street and MIS also make dye inks (http://www.inksupply.com/epsoninks.cfm) - if you did your own cartridge filling I wonder if you could use dye black with pigments in the rest of the cartridges? Someone here will be able to tell you if that's possible. Of course the two ink types would have to be compatible (which the Lyson and UC inks are not). And the dye inks are not made for pigment printers so you never know what problems might arise.

Good luck,
Richard


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