Digital BW, The Print

Hi Folks,

Since the 1400 has the fine 1.5 peco heads, I would like to try BO with the Claria inks. My understanding is that selecting grayscale on this printer actually uses more than the black ink channel.   If I purchased Roy Harrington's QTR, would this allow me to print true BO with the Claria inks? Would this be suggested?

I like the fact that Claria prints are durable and water resistant- since the BO does not spray droplets on areas of the print that are pure white, I am concerned that the print would not be as protected as a full coverage print.  Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks for any input.

Lincoln

"outdoornm" <outdoornm@...> wrote:

> Since the 1400 has the fine 1.5 peco heads, I would like to try BO with the Claria inks. 


>My understanding is that selecting grayscale on this printer actually uses more than the black ink channel.

Yes.

> If I purchased Roy Harrington's QTR, would this allow me to print true BO with the Claria inks? Would this be suggested?

Yes.  Use QTR.

 
> ... I am concerned that the print would not be as protected as a full coverage print. 

I'm not sure what you mean here.  I suspect you're thinking of the gloss optimizer the R1800 uses, but that does not protect the print; it simply helps hide some of the artifacts of pigments on glossy paper.  You won't have these artifacts with Claria prints.

I've seen some Claria glossy prints that are amazingly good.  On some papers the K is a bit greenish.  For these, you can tone them more neutral with the LM ink.  I've made some QTR profiles that do this and might be useful to you once you get the system up and running.

With any black only workflow there is a higher chance that the particular printer is not made well enough that it can make a good print with only one channel (K) printing.  From what I can tell, most 1400s are made well enough to  make a good black only print.

We don't have longevity information on the Claria black only prints at this point.  They won't be in the same class with 100% carbon, but how well they'll do is unknown at this point.  

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

Paul,

Thank you for you quick response.  

My point about the full coverage print is that BO uses the white paper for the white part of the image. Therefore, areas that are mostly white will not have the glop coverage.  I have wiped my Claria matte prints with a wet rag(scrubbed even) and it is a durable as they say. Obviously, I would not be able to do this with bare matte paper. (Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Matte)

I look forward to using the QTR software and hope my 1400 is up to par for BO printing.  I liked BO on a lesser printer and  hope for even better results with the 1.5 peco heads. 

I am a frequent visitor to your site and commend you on the help you have given all of us.

Lincoln 



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul" <roark.paul@...> wrote:

>
> "outdoornm" <outdoornm@> wrote:
> 
> > Since the 1400 has the fine 1.5 peco heads, I would like to try BO with the Claria inks. 
> 
> 
> >My understanding is that selecting grayscale on this printer actually uses more than the black ink channel.
> 
> Yes.
> 
> > If I purchased Roy Harrington's QTR, would this allow me to print true BO with the Claria inks? Would this be suggested?
> 
> Yes.  Use QTR.
> 
>  
> > ... I am concerned that the print would not be as protected as a full coverage print. 
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean here.  I suspect you're thinking of the gloss optimizer the R1800 uses, but that does not protect the print; it simply helps hide some of the artifacts of pigments on glossy paper.  You won't have these artifacts with Claria prints.
> 
> I've seen some Claria glossy prints that are amazingly good.  On some papers the K is a bit greenish.  For these, you can tone them more neutral with the LM ink.  I've made some QTR profiles that do this and might be useful to you once you get the system up and running.
> 
> With any black only workflow there is a higher chance that the particular printer is not made well enough that it can make a good print with only one channel (K) printing.  From what I can tell, most 1400s are made well enough to  make a good black only print.
> 
> We don't have longevity information on the Claria black only prints at this point.  They won't be in the same class with 100% carbon, but how well they'll do is unknown at this point.  
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul" <roark.paul@...> wrote:

> We don't have longevity information on the Claria black only prints at this point.  They won't be in the same class with 100% carbon, but how well they'll do is unknown at this point.  


Some samples of Claria black only test targets are going into light fade testing by the end of this month at AaI&A. I'd hoped to have them in test sooner, but need to work out some pre-humidification experiments that will attempt to separate out any possible dye diffusion issues from light-induced fading. Dyes continue to migrate for a long time after printing, sometimes subtly changing the print density values. It's not enough for the typical consumer to notice, but the AaI&A Conservation Display ratings are a tougher criteria for "little or no noticeable" fade, so I want to have as stable a colorimetric starting point as possible in the upcoming tests.

kind regards,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com

Regarding the 1.5 picoliter heads. I believe the specification says something like "minimum ink droplet size" of 1.5 picoliters. To me this means the head puts down variable size dots with the smallest being 1.5 picoliters. If this is true I wonder what the median size is? And how much does this matter at normal viewing distances? For comparison, both the 2400 and 3880 have heads of 3.5 picoliters.

Michael K

"Michael" <michael3442@...> wrote:
>
> Regarding the 1.5 picoliter heads. I believe the specification says something like "minimum ink droplet size" of 1.5 picoliters. To me this means the head puts down variable size dots with the smallest being 1.5 picoliters. 

I believe that is the case, but I don't know what the median size would be.

> ... And how much does this matter at normal viewing distances? 

I've always felt that the 1.5 pl printers are the only ones that can make what I consider "photo quality" prints with black only printing.  Of course what one can tolerate varies.  

With the Eboni black only, the results can be  too rough for me in certain photos with clear skies.  Here the dots of the printer and the grain of the photo seem to multiply.  This may be related to aliasing as discussed in another thread lately.  I don't know. But with Eboni and the 1400, I often will blend the black only profile with an Eboni-6 profile to compromise the smoothness of Eboni-6 with the neutrality of the Eboni black only.

With glossy papers and HP PK, I have not run into the roughness problem.  That could be just because of the particular images I print with that approach or the fact that the PK is simply smoother.

At any rate, I've never been satisfied with a 3.5 pl printer and black only printing.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com