Digital BW, The Print

Hi all!

Finally I fixed my old 2200 and put there mix of C6 diluted HP PK inks
and couple carbon inks from MIS that are compatible with glossy paper.
Idea was to warm up black tones a little bit, I think pure HP PK is too
cold in black. Inks positions are:

K - HP PK 100%
LK - HP PK 33%
C - MIS UT7 C
M - HP PK 16%
LC - MIS UT7 LC
LM - HP PK 8%
Y - MIS Glop

On Kirkland paper this setup produced DMax 2.86, something I didn't
expect at all. I spent some time figuring out QTR profile, because using
K as gray curve produced very weak 100% spot, it had L 12 and 95% spot
was 3.2. At the end I changed inks setup and used MIS inks as grays and
HP inks as toners. You could see table with 21 patches ramp here
<http://cid-b0975f9c313515c7.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Kirklan\
dGraph%5E_C6%5E_HPPK.gif#resId/B0975F9C313515C7%21164> , and curve with
Lab b here
<http://cid-b0975f9c313515c7.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Kirklan\
dGraph%5E_C6%5E_HPPK.gif#resId/B0975F9C313515C7%21163> , sorry I don't
have usable Web page, and put these picture to SkyDrive.  I will try to
make profile more neutral. On my 2200 pure HP PK has heavy microbanding,
much worse than on 1400, and not suitable for BO printing. Probable it
was a reason why 100% black spot was so weak. Mix of warm carbon MIS
inks and HP PK is very smooth.  Glop doesn't help too much -- where
paper has no inks, it still has visible gloss differential.
So Paul's suggestion worked fine. I am really surprised by DMax, in the
black spot my spectro measured L 1.26, and non-linearized profile
reading was 1.13. I could expect that Silver Rag will be even darker.

I also put matte compatible inkset into 1400. Here my goal was to cool
down highlight and produce more neutral tones. I used 8% dilution of HP
PK in Y position, replacing 2% dilution of Eboni, inks positions are

K - 100% Eboni
C - 33% Eboni
M - 16% Eboni
Y - 8% HP PK
LC - 8% Eboni
LM - 4% Eboni

Y ink was used as toner, I moved toner curve to highlights a little bit.
I prepared two profiles, one with diluted HP PK, other one just Eboni.
With this setup the best DMax was on PremierArt Matte BW 200 -- I still
have some leftovers. I got DMax 1.71 with C6 only and 1.7 with cooled
inkset. Again, table with measurements is here
<http://cid-b0975f9c313515c7.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Kirklan\
dGraph%5E_C6%5E_HPPK.gif#resId/B0975F9C313515C7%21165>  , and Lab b
graphs for cooled and non-cooled inkset are here
<http://cid-b0975f9c313515c7.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Kirklan\
dGraph%5E_C6%5E_HPPK.gif#resId/B0975F9C313515C7%21166>  . Cooled down
inkset produces quite neutral prints, highlights are not warm at all.
Visually tone of glossy inkset that I used for Kirkland paper is
somewhere between cooled and non-cooled tones for matte paper.
I profiled some other matte papers too, got about the same tones, but
DMax was lower than on MatteBW. I am expecting delivery with HPR and
PremierArt Smooth FA 200 (Alise Museum is backordered) and couple papers
from Red River, after that I will profile these too. Cooled tone looks
very nice on PA FineArt 205 (which is natural paper, but DMax is "only"
1.59). Looking at DMax, matte paper can't hold the candle to

If anyone is interested in using these non-standard inksets, I could
upload my profiles. I selected 2200 for glossy papers over 1400 because
of extra slot for glop, but if you drop glop, same glossy setup could be
used on any 6 inks printer.
These setups are probably not compatible with Epson driver, but I don't
use it at all.

Thanks to Paul Roark for good ideas,

Sergei







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