Digital BW, The Print

Hello, I used to have the 2200 printer and I did B&W printing from  scanned 
negs and digital output. I was able to get acceptable B&W prints  using the 
regular Epson inks for the 2200. You will never get fantastic B&W  prints 
from the 2200 no matter what inks you use. They will be OK at best but  you 
cant compare them to regular silver prints. I printed on many papers  
including Japanese Gampi tissue paper and the results are interesting but if you  
put a digital print next to a silver print you will choose the silver print 
in a  second. I now have the Epson 3800 printer and I can say the same. 
Digital prints  have a digital look to them. I can get some pretty good quality 
out of the 3800  but I would not sell an exhibition quality digital print for 
the same price I  can sell a silver print. I am printing on the Epson 
silver fiber type digital  media now and it still has that digital look to it. I 
have been printing silver  prints for 30 years and I teach both digital and 
silver printing and it is clear  that digital B&W printing has a way to go 
yet. If you use one of the glossy  silver type digital papers they will have 
that bronzing look to them with the  2200. If you use a matt paper there 
will not be bronzing but you will have muddy  shadow detail. One big problem 
with using the off brand inks is that the 2200  can have clogging problems. I 
have not used off brand inks in the 2200 because I  found that the 2200 
worked pretty well with the standard Epson inks. I was never  really happy with 
digital B&W because of my silver background and I still am  not that happy 
with the prints that I can do with the 3800. My students go ohh  and ahh when 
I show them my digital B&W prints but the ohhs and ahhs stop  when I show 
my silver prints at the same time. The silver prints blow away any  digital 
print that I can do. There is no comparing the two types of prints. You  must 
calibrate your monitor no matter what. Any of the spider type calibration  
units work fine. Get one in the 175.00 range. I hope that this is a help for 
 you. Steve


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