Digital BW, The Print

Hello All,

When the K3 printers arrived in 2005 several people noted that HPR,
long time top dog for matte paper dmax, didn't look as good with K3 as
compared to MIS Eboni-based ink sets.  I noticed it myself, and also
that Epson's VFA looked better with K3.  Now I have some actual
densitometer readings to share.  It's quite interesting and supports
the visual reports.

Many thanks to Steve Karafyllakis who now has a densitometer and
graciously offered to read all my test prints.  I'm reading my
previous Eboni BO test prints and also some new K3 versions.  Readings
were taken 3 times on a large area of pure solid black (RGB 0,0,0). 
Here are some results, more coming later:

Paper                   Eboni      K3
---------------------------------------
H. Photo Rag             1.72     1.65
E. Velvet Fine Art       1.71     1.75
E. EEM                    ?       1.70
I. Soft Texture Art      1.65     1.66 
PA Fine Art Hot Press     ?       1.61
HM Merlin Natural         ?       1.55

I'll be updating the "Paper Chase" article soon with the new K3 test
results.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm