Digital BW, The Print

Gary Wagner" wrote:

> I have been using Eboni 6 on my Epson 1400 and the results 
> have been looking very good. When I print on Premier Art 
> Smooth BW the tone is very neutral and the blacks are a 
> good looking black.  

> When I use other papers the tone becomes much warmer than 
> I would prefer. I have tried some of the other
> recommended papers but none come close to the Premier Art 
> for cool tones.

Yes, that paper with Eboni-6 is the best exception to the general 
rule that carbon prints warm.  The old Brightcube Eclipse Satine 
(still available from 
http://store.ultrafineonline.com/brinkjetpa.html ) is close.  I've 
mentioned a few others at 
http://store.ultrafineonline.com/brinkjetpa.html 

> Is there some other ink that could be mixed with one or 
> more of the 6 Eboni inks that would produce a cooler image 
> on a wider variety of papers? 

Neutral 100% carbon is tough to achieve.  Eboni-6 base does not seem 
to be compatible with the new glossy bases.  Whether you can have 
some carts of each in the printer at the same time is something I 
have not tried.

(I'll probably make an HP based neutral inkset for the older 
printers, but I doubt it'll run well in the 1.5 pl printers.)


> I have a set of  UT 14 inks. Are these compatible with Eboni 6 
> and could they be mixed in to make the ink cooler? 

UT14 is the more flexible inkset for the 1400 that gives you a wide 
range of tones, in addition to glossy or matte paper printing without 
changing any inks.  

If you wanted to try a combination, you could try a couple things.  
First, the UT14 LC is a cool ink that could be substitued into the 
Eboni-6 inkset.  If you know how to use QTR, I'd use it as a toner 
and probably replace one of the middle (say M) position Eboni-6 inks.

If you're only going to use the Epson driver, the Y position is the 
one that is easiest to control via curves, but I'd want to keep the 2 
lightest Eboni-6 inks, so you'll have some cart-chip switching and 
curves to make.
 
> I like the tonal smoothness and look of the highlights using  
> the 6 ink Eboni  more than the UT 14.

A second approach you could try is to just replace the UT14 Y (glop) 
with a very light ink, maybe even the Eboni-6 Y.  You'll still need 
to make some curves or a QTR profile that puts a lot of that in the 
highlights.  That's not too hard to do if you're accustomed to using 
curves for that purpose.  You could still use Create ICC-RGB to 
linearize the system and "color manage" the output.

If the Eboni-6 and UT14 inks are not compatible on the pad, you'll 
notice nuisance minor clogs as clumps stick to the head.  These are 
usually not that serious, but if that starts to occur, I'd stop the 
experiment.

Let us know how it works out.  


Paul
www.PaulRoark.com