Digital BW, The Print

On Feb 3, 2010, at 4:36 PM, David Kachel wrote:

> Despite the fact that OEM inks are clearly not what they should be  
> yet with regard to longevity and that visually the aftermarket  
> monotone ink sets have something unique to offer, I am getting an  
> initial impression based on the paucity of offerings and the  
> hopelessly out of date web sites involved, that these B&W  
> specialized ink sets are not long for this world. That would be a  
> shame.
>
> Am I reading this correctly?

Thats certainly a concern even amongst the biggest advocates of such  
sets (many of whom you will find on this list). Between legal  
decisions favoring the printer companies, newer models that are  
progressively harder to hack third party inks into, and the fact that  
the OEM B&W options are "good enough" for many users, the overall B&W  
specialty market is shrinking. I worked with multiple suppliers on  
multiple different B&W inksets over the years, and have watched these  
companies leave the field, or cease further development. MIS and Cone  
would be the main survivors at this point in time.

C. David Tobie
Global Product Technology Manager
Digital Imaging & Home Theater
CDTobie@...


  ----------



Datacolor
www.datacolor.com/Spyder3





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]