Digital BW, The Print

Hi Christian,

>... purchased an C88+ and the mis bulk inks and printed ...
> on Photorag 308g. ...
>... my prints. They have a depth that even silver papers struggle to get. 

>I still would like to see the fine detail that I see in the 
>highlights of silver papers but matte papers cannot go there 

Some will dispute this.  Maybe the C88 can't go there quite as well as some
of the others that have smoother highlights. 

I think one of the differences I see between silver printing and inkjet
printing is the extent to which inkjets can attain higher contrast in the
highlights that only bleaching could achieve with a silver print.  The
chemical processes inevitably rolled the highlight values off in a
"shoulder," whereas the inkjet technology produces a straight line curve
right up to the paper white.  Of course, if one likes the rolled-off
highlights, that can be done in Photoshop. 

>... they cannot achieve deep dmaxes. 

The glossy paper measured dmax is terrific.  But due to reflections, the
super-deep blacks are only visually realized when ideal lighting is
available.  All too often reflections mask the deepest blacks and the subtle
details there.  In real world display, the matte papers do rather well due
to their lack of reflections.  Under glass, the differences are usually
rather minor.  Like the highlights, the ability to have higher contrast in
the shadows also makes inkjet dmaxs more realistically useable than the
ultimate silver print dmaxs. 

Your C88 with MIS PKN ink can make quite good glossy prints.  So, you can
try some of the different papers rather easily.  Crane Silver Rag was one of
the early "fiber based" glossy papers that is definitely worth a try.  It
has no OBAs so is a bit warmer than the others.


>... I also read some about BO printing with the epson 1800 and 
> it sounds interesting but I am a sucker for smooth tones ...

The 1800 3-MK highlights are probably better and smoother than the C88.  See
http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/R1800.htm for a general write up of the
approach and http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/R1800-Image-Structure.pdf for
scans of the dot patterns that show relative smoothness.

The 1800 approach can also be used with PKN for glossy paper.  Eboni is
strictly a matte black ink.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com