Digital BW, The Print

Louis,

There is a myth that Carbon is this material that can not be altered,
and always remains warm brown. Certainly for many pigment ink
manufacturers that is a limiting factor, when they depend upon pigment
suppliers.

But, carbon is a pigment which can be altered at the molecular level
without decreasing its fade resistance. In some cases it is actually
increased. Also, it can be shaped differently to reflect back
different light so as to make it appear less brown. These are the two
approaches that Piezography takes when formulating ink with carbon.

Piezography has actual split-tone carbon ink sets that use one
Piezography curve in QTR. Piezography Special Edition is three splits
using one Piezography curve in QTR. These ink sets have either six or
seven actual shades of ink from light to dark so is intended for very
high standard printing with one curve, rather than an ink set of only
3-4 shades which are combined with another 3 shades to vary from warm
to cool - and therefore use two curves. Piezography always offers more
shades for better resolution, tonal latitude, and highlight/shadow
detail. It is an approach that may not make a difference if you do not
need that level of quality. However, the split toning might interest
you because it does not rely on using warm/cool color pigments mixed
via curves with carbon. It is more a purist solution to the problem.

We also offer a traditional SplitTone™ of Neutral/Sepia, Sepia/Selenium.

But Piezography Special Edition has the most contrast because the
highlights are allowed to remain neutral, while the colder selenium
tones head towards strong sepia. The contrast is purely a visual
phenomena. 

These inks are available for a lot of printers and you can see if
yours is supported at the following link:

http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/sc.15/category.1238/.f

I mostly monitor the Piezography users list at:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/piezography3000/

But will check back in case you have other questions.

Best regards,

Jon Cone
Piezography
InkjetMall




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Louis de Stoutz
<loudest@...> wrote:
>
> In my darkroom days, I did some experimenting with very slight split 
> toning, like e.g. warm shadows and cool lights, or cool shadows and
warm 
> lights.
> 
> I would like to be able to do that in an archival quality with carbon. 
> As I understand, there is no other way than to add other "things" to
the 
> carbon, right? If I remember well, people started out adding dyes to 
> carbon inks, which doesn't sound very archival to me.
> 
> Are there other (pigment based?) solutions on the market, that allow to 
> preserve those small, but oh so important nuances over the lifetime of 
> the print? Can one compose one's own mixes? Can you then control the 
> whole thing in PS?
> 
> Thanks for your educative suggestions!
> 
> Louis de Stoutz
>