Digital BW, The Print

What I'm really interested in is how ABW prints might shift color  
between different papers/printer combos vs MIS and Piezography inks as  
they fade under light. This is almost a larger concern than black fade  
for me. As long as black fade is consistent and slopes off (ie: slows  
down) on an even curve, I'm ok with it. But if different tones start  
hueing out of control, then it's time to chuck that printer/ink/paper  
combo out the window. (ABW testing is really important for the  
industry, I think, because most people and even universities are  
teaching with Epson printers and ABW setups for intro BW classes.  
Silver is being shut down in replace of an untested driver setting!!)

For those sending color samples to Mark MG, maybe we should strive to  
send top-quality (ie: Linearized with CreateICC) ABW and QTR prints as  
well so we all can start to build a concrete dataset and be able to  
make decisions based on that. It will tell us what combos to not focus  
on and what combos to really strive to perfect. Silver Rag on K3 4800  
looks really promising. I'm going to print Cone Color K3 on Silver Rag  
to send to Mark so we can all see how the two inks compete.

For example, what is the hue longevity difference between an 11880 ABW  
print on HPR 308 vs the 3800? What about the 9900? What is the  
difference between ABW on the 11880 vs a CMYK+ toned print from  
StudioPrint on the Roland printers using the quad cone ink with Museum  
K?

There is such complexity in how inks are overlapped and so many  
combinations of paper and ink out there; it's been such an impossible  
idea that none of us have really thought we could ever know for sure  
what system of color/bw ink mixtures was better.

But now there is at least a glimmer of future possibility . . .

Mark, I have one suggestion. Maybe on the site you could put up a  
request board where you request swatch prints from your users. For  
example, I see a Lucia OEM / Harman FB AI test up. It would be useful  
to see the Epson 4800 K3 OEM test along side it but maybe it won't  
come until you request it of your users. eh?

Also, maybe it would be useful for those of us who end up using the  
site to have a user-profile area where we share the printer/inks we  
are using. This way we can see if, for example, a user has a 9900 and  
another user has a 3880. We can then coordinate our chart printing to,  
for example, all send you HPR QTR/ABW/Color swatches from our similar- 
generation printers so that you can begin the tests at the same time  
instead of waiting for someone randomly to come along with the  
comparable printer/ink/paper combo swatch. This way, you can also  
quickly see everyones swatch printing capabilities and make requests  
easier.

I hope enough funding comes through for this grand adventure Mark MG.

All the best,
Walker