Digital BW, The Print

Paul:
Centifuging will not necessarily give you the results I think you want. This typically separates heavier particles from lighter ones. As you know, all pigmented inks are "ground" to try and get a more uniform particle size. In the end, there is still some clumping. The centifuged results should just give you different color balances depending on the kind of clumping that has taken place. It would be interesting to see if when carbon grays are mixed with color pigments, if they "clump" individually, or with each other. I would venture to guess it would depend on ionic forces.

When my old ink partner Takichi Maertz was experimenting with B&W printing with dilutions of dyes, we did some work with paper chromatography to determine the composition of both pigment and dye inks. You might try that in addition to your centifuging experiments.

The settling situation is again another animal. While today's pigmented inks are sooooo much better when it comes to settling, you will still have it occur to some extent when inks are allowed to sit undisturbed. The carrier/co-solvent of course is of paramount importance here.

Paul, I applaud you continuing research and sharing on with the community, your results. Keep up the good work!

John Nollendorfs

   

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "pr_roark" <paul.roark@...> wrote:
>
> C D Tobie <CDTobie@> wrote:
> 
> > Have you given the HP grays a whirl?
> 
> Yes, they are blended carbon and color.  I don't know that I have good enough data to compare the 2 in terms of separation, however.  
> 
> With the HP inks the blending became very obvious the first time I worked with them.  The magenta stains the equipment just like it does with the MIS blended inks.  I have not noticed that with the K3 LLK.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>