Digital BW, The Print

Richard Smallfield writ:

> While we're on the subject of dye inks, four or five years ago,  
> people were using the HP 59 tritone greyscale dye ink cartridges in  
> HP printers.
>
> It was thought by some - Wilhelm and HP - that these were very  
> archival.
>
> Well I used them too and they haven't lasted well. They are  
> decidedly green looking and the Ultrachrome OEM inks with QTR have  
> lasted far better.
>
> If HP can't do it, why should anyone else be able to?

Actually, they did:

http://tinyurl.com/ccxfzr

(I think my review is still in there someplace.)

This replaced both an Epson 2200 and an Epson 1160 which I loaded up  
with�surprise!�Lyson Quad Black Neutral ink carts. All I'll say here  
about the Lyson/1160 setup here is that, when it worked, it looked  
awfully good, especially on the notoriously tough-to-find Lyson  
Darkroom Range glossy paper, which managed to nail that ferrotyped- 
glossy look and feel quite nicely. When it *didn't* work, it was  
awful...which it was about half the time at least. When the 1160  
clogged, it clogged DEFINITIVELY, rendering the printer all but  
useless for days at a time. When I discovered the 8750, I ditched  
both printers as quickly as I could.

I've been using the 8750 ever since, and have been very, very happy  
with the results, especially black-and-white. I can move freely  
between glossy, semi-gloss and matte (yes, principally using HP's  
Premium/Premium Plus papers), although I rarely print matte these  
days. It takes a day or two for the prints to properly  
"settle" (we're talking swellable-surface papers here), but there are  
virtually *none* of the nasties that usually plague glossy b/w  
inkjets...and the kicker is, this is when using just the three black/ 
grey inks. No need for Composite printing (using all inks) as on the  
B9180. No metamerism, no bronzing, no gloss differential.  And I can  
print up to 13" x 19".

Caveats? A few:

- The carts are the old-school combination carts, which means smaller  
ink capacity. On the upside, they offer a larger grey cart as an  
option.  No CIS/CFS option. For me, the fact that I waste relatively  
little ink and paper getting the results I want largely compensates  
for this.

- Wilhelm gives the printer *very* good marks for "archival"  
lightfastness, but not waterfastness: the prints are still more  
vulnerable to water than pigment prints. Again, this I can deal with.  
(Really, you don't want water touching *any* fine print, regardless  
of materials.)

- HP stopped producing this printer a handful of months ago. I might  
actually be looking for one to mothball as a backup. I like it that  
much.

If only they made a true successor to it. Or, better still a version  
along the lines of Epson's 3800. (I know, it's silly, but that's what  
I was told when I asked for a "bigger and better version" of HP's  
7960. ;-)


- Barrett

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