Digital BW, The Print

I would also note that for anyone using a rip (say colorburst) and not  
using Epson's default screening (Epson's default screening will add  
color ink overlay into the netrual to compensate for the brown/green K  
ink that Epson sells) you can buy 4 selenium inks from Jon Cone to  
replace your PK MK LK LLK. Then, when you build your custom CMYK  
profile, the setup will use more pure K ink when printing neutrals in  
color images. This cuts matamerism way down and generally gives you a  
superior profile for printing neutral images with small areas of full  
color (one of the hardest printing procedures, and something today's  
profilers still can't handle very well with mixed Ks like Epson). The  
3800/3880 (with it's 6 droplet sizes) are uniquelly up to this task.  
Also, this method will give you a more stable (neutral) starting point  
for building QuadtoneRIP profiles for your color inks.

This really only works best with the newest head tech starting on the  
3800/4880/3880/9880

I tried this on the 9600 back in the day, but it was touch and go. I  
think Epson developed the brown K ink originally because they were  
limited in nozzles. The only way to get a line/dot-free BW print was  
to mix brown/green K ink with other colors to up the amount of nozzles  
needed to make a neutral print with "high enough" physical resolution.  
I could get a semi-satisfactory neutral K print from the 9600 using  
2880dpi and Smooth Diffusion dither form Studioprint. But this was  
about it. They probably still do this to make it harder for others to  
replicate their ink overlays, but that is just my cynicism bubbling up.

Walker