Digital BW, The Print

At 09:10 p.m. Tuesday 30/03/2010, you wrote:
>By the way,  QTR is a great bit of software, I have used it for some years
>now and have printed for several exhibitions.  Now I am tempted to move from
>my venerable 2100 to a 3880!

John,
last year I moved from the 2100 to the 3800 and, like you, had printed several exhibitions on the 2100 - you wouldn't regret the move I can tell you!

I get the results I want quicker with the 3800 - it seems to be more precise. My profiles seem to be more accurate - and generic profiles are more often now all I need. The K3 inks make Ilford Gold Fibre Silk a perfect paper to use; I can get away without spraying FB prints to get rid of bronzing; square photos are now an appropriate size. And the printer is small for a 17" and fits most work spaces - or in the boot of the car when I travel.

All in all, it was a huge step forward for me - even if constantly having to change blacks and purge the ink lines is ridiculous (it's all very well to say don't change too often but when you print for clients, you do end up constantly changing blacks). And the rear feed is temperamental (turning off the automatic paper check fixed the problem - but sometimes the paper has then not fed at all, despite the 'printing' having been done - on the insides of the printer).

I've stayed with QTR and not changed to ABW, because: 1 - it's accurate and I don't want to waste time perfecting the use of a new method when I've got the results I want with QTR already; 2 - looking through a loupe reveals the fact that there is less colour ink used with QTR.

Other makes have advantages - such as not changing blacks - but QTR is a very compelling reason to stay with Epson despite their bad points.

Richard  
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http://www.richardsmallfield.com