Digital BW, The Print

> If you want better B/W I think you should be looking at 3rd party 
B/W
> specific inks ala Piezography or MIS. Which aren't really available
> for the 3800 yet, but may be in a few months.

If someones comes up with an all carbon inkset and profiles for the 
3800 supporting both glossy and b&W, and is superior to k3 with ABW, 
I'd buy it in a heartbeat!!  And others would too...  Meanwhile, the 
ABW K3 is pretty awesome esepcailly for gloss pares ... 
SteveB


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "dealy663" 
<dealy663@...> wrote:
>
> I just gave up on Epson Enhanced Matte when I moved up to the
> Ultrachrome K3 printers. For me that ink/paper combo just didn't 
work
> very well. I never tried ImagePrint on the K3 printers, but even 
with
> my own custom profile of EEM on K3 it still just didn't work very 
well.
> 
> I bought ImagePrint for the 2200 and returned it. I just couldn't
> produce a superior print with that system than I could with my 2200
> and custom profiles. I don't agree at all that the 3800 produces
> inferior prints to the 2200 in any way other than EEM. And I 
seriously
> doubt you'll get any response of consequence from Epson regarding 
this
> letter. Most people find the Epson supplied profiles for this 
printer
> to be pretty good. There are also a large number of people who have
> been quite successful in making B/W prints with the ABW driver.
> 
> If you want better B/W I think you should be looking at 3rd party 
B/W
> specific inks ala Piezography or MIS. Which aren't really available
> for the 3800 yet, but may be in a few months.
> 
> ---
> Derek
> 
> blogging at: http://derekealy.com/WordPress
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "digikdm"
> <monroekd@> wrote:
> >
> > I have been printing with my new Epson 3800 for about 1 month, 
and I
> > am a bit dismayed that the B&W prints I'm getting using the 
intrinsic
> > Epson driver (with or without third party profiles provided by 
Eric
> > Chan) are inferior to the B&W prints I get using ImagePrint with 
my
> > Epson 2200 printer. Admittedly, the prints are far superior to the
> > intrinsic Epson driver for the 2200, but I would have thought that
> > after 3-4 years of R&D, you guys would have figured out why 
ImagePrint
> > is so superior to your driver. Also I have found that the color
> > profiles provided in the driver vary in their quality. You guys 
are
> > apparently aware of this situation, since you are offering the 
Bill
> > Atkinson 7600/9600 profiles on your website and state that "in 
most
> > cases, these custom ICC profiles will provide much better color 
and
> > black and white print quality than with the standard profiles 
already
> > shipping with every printer". I don't understand why it is so
> > difficult for a company that is totally devoted to printing to 
create
> > the best possible canned profiles for their own printers and 
papers.
> > You would likely prevent numerous defectors to third party 
papers, if
> > you created the best possible profiles for your own papers. If one
> > spends >$1000 for a printer, they should not then have to scour 
the
> > internet for profiles or third party drivers to get the best 
possible
> > prints. The Bill Atkinson profiles do not work well for the 3800, 
and
> > thus the 3800 users are left out in the cold for accurate color
> profiles.
> > I have also found it confusing that you have discontinued Epson
> > Enhanced matte and Archival Matte
> > papers and yet these profiles are still in the driver software. 
If the
> > Ultrapremium presentation matte is the same as Ep Enhanced which I
> > thought was the same as Archival matte, then why are there 
separate
> > profiles in the driver for Enhanced matte and Archival matte? The
> > profile/paper combo for premium luster is superior to that for the
> > Enhanced matte profile/ultrapremium presentation matte paper 
combo,
> > but both could be improved. 
> > The enhanced matte profile in concert with Ultrapremium 
presentation
> > matte paper is particularly poor with muddy/blocked-up shadow 
areas. 
> > Perhaps you should pay Bill Atkinson to create some color 
profiles for
> > the 3800 or better yet, Epson should purchase Colorbyte.
> > Thanks
> > Kevin Monroe
> >
>