Digital BW, The Print

Denis,

I don't mean to answer for Carl, but be sure not to use my original PKN that
is on the MIS "Roark's Lab" page
(http://www.inksupply.com/roarkslab.cfm)(not my doing).

At that page MIS states: 
"PKN - Ultratone Photo Black Neutral -
Paul has discovered that, by adding some archival blue pigments to the
Ultratone Photo Black ink, he can achieve a significantly higher Dmax
on gloss and semi-gloss papers."

I agree.

MIS continues: "The addition of the blue has only minor effects on the fade 
resistance of the ink..."

Well, I wish.  I have not tested these inks.  The ink has about 40% color
pigments in it.  Cyan is very lightfast, so I used as much of that as
possible.  However, to avoid green in the shadows there is also a fair
amount of magenta in it.  Magenta is not very lightfast for pigments -- not
close to good carbon.  (Note that in many cases I use the R800Blue instead
of magenta, but it's not that much better than the magenta.)

As noted above, to make this ink as lightfast as I could, I used as much
cyan as I could relative to magenta.  That makes this ink too cyan for
midtone use.  So, I definitely do not recommend a black only or 3-MK
approach with this original PKN.  It's for the best dmax on older printers
-- nothing else.

What I recommend for the 1800 is the inks I recently mixed for the R260.
These PKN versions have a mix of blue that is appropriate for midtones and
specifically the 3-PK approach on the R1800.  These are at
http://www.inksupply.com/r260_blackandwhite.cfm   Note the "Neutral,"
"Cool," or "Warm" labels at the top of each MIS inkset tabel.  The cartridge
sets are listed in the first 3 tables.  The bulk inks are in the second 3
tables.  

The warm RC inks are pure carbon.  The neutral are going to print medium
warm on many papers in the midtone positions, even though the 100% black is
a bit on the cool side.  That is, the inks tend to print warmer when in
midtone positions.  Carl is using the "neutral" PKN (bulk ink # RC-NTL-4-PK)
for all positions.  

If you want a more straight line response from paper white to 100% black,
use of a Cool PK (bulk # RC-CL-4-PK) in the midtones will help, but continue
with the "neutral" for the 100% black and deep shadows.  You'll have to look
at Carl's curves to see what ink position is used where.  The "Neutral" PK
has about half the blue as the original PKN.  The "Cool" RC PK has about 50%
more blue than the Neutral RC PK, and still less than the original PKN.

Hope this helps.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 

> > >> Carl Schofield wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> Best small format B&W prints I've ever made on RC
> > >>> (and the new fiber papers) have been with the Epson R1800 
> > >>> using Paul Roark's 3-MK workflow, but subsituting the 
> > >>> new MIS neutral PK (part# RCNTL-4-PKN). These "3-PKN" 
> > >>> prints have that luminous BO quality,
> > >>> but without the "grain". Very smooth highlights and midtones.
> > >>> QTR R1800 3-PKN profiles ... available here:
> > >>> http://homepage.mac.com/scho/.Public/R1800_3PKN.zip
> > >>>
> > >>> Carl Schofield