Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "pr_roark" 
<pr_roark@...> wrote:
>
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Ernst Dinkla 
> <edinkla@> wrote:
> > ... 
> > I see enough difference however between the 9000 quad prints 
> > with 11 picoliter droplets compared to the Z3100 4-6 
> > picoliter droplets. ...
> 
> 
> Just to set the record straight, and while I don't dispute that one 
> can see differences in output, it appears the 7000-9000 series has 
an 
> 8 picoliter fixed droplet size, compared to the 7600-9600 smallest 
> droplet size of 4 picoliters.
> 

Depending on how you drive it, you can get either 11 picoliters or 8 
picoliters, but from what I remember it can not change in mid job 
like the DX3 heads can (76/9600). There are settings for normal dot 
size and micro dot size in my RIP, they do make a difference but I 
would always print with micro dot. I saw no gains in dmax using the 
larger drops and was getting 1.7ish on Hanhemuhle matte papers with 
Eboni. In order to prevent banding with the larger dots, multipass 
must be used which slows the printing down to a crawl.

> 
> But, in any case, for my uses the 7500 and with the 6 dilution 
> inksets seem very capable; I think the older 7000-9000 series 
> machines can be very good bargains.
> 

And because they are tanks that will probably continue to print long 
after some of the newer models fail. The easy head replacement on the 
HP Z series would be way better for a big commercial place where time 
is money, and down time costs a lot.