Digital BW, The Print

Well the B&W inkjet world is even broader with the availability of the MIS Sepia-VM set. This set is not listed on their website but can be ordered in 4 oz or larger bottles if you call them. I purchased a 4 oz. set and loaded them into virgin cartridges. I currently have it my 2nd 1280 and did some 13x19 and 11x17 prints on EAM and Photo Rag today using a variety of Paul's and Tyler's curves for the standard MIS VM and some combinations.

This is a very interesting set and the differences achieved by applying different curves seem much stronger than with the regular VM. This set is most interesting at the extreme ends with maximum toner or minimum toner where the standard set is most often used with the middle curves. On the 1280 I was able to get a modest sepia tone with the vmp8-c14 curve. I have seen Paul's prints from an 1160 and he was able to get a much stronger sepia tone. Perhaps with the older "cc" curve from last summer I could get a better sepia effect.

With the warm, vmp8-w21 curve applied, the print looked exactly like MIS Neutral FS as far as I can tell. A very slightly cool neutral.

With the neutral cool, vmp8-nc16 curve I got print that fell in between warm and light sepia. This was my least favorite.

With the medium warm vmp8-mw16 curve I got a print that was very smooth tonally and considerably warmer than anything I have seen with regular MIS VM, regular MIS FS or Piezo inks. If you like warm tone prints this would seem to be the ink set to go with.

For my own taste, only the print with the vmp8-mw16 curve is something I might use occasionally. All of the other effects are nice but are not the direction I personally want to go. They will be heaven for many others though.

Next I tried some combination layers of a "medium warm" curve over a "warm" (actually neutral with these inks) and set the "medium warm" upper layer's opacity to 50% and then 25%. Now these are looking like my selenium toned silver! This is in line with Paul's earlier post about adding some of the toner to the black to warm up the ink set and damp down the slight blue tint of the grays.

The one difficulty here for me is that the VM curves for the 6 ink printers are not so smooth in the extreme positions, especially the warm. The curves have to become too radical to overcome the Epson driver crossovers for the photo cyan and photo magenta position inks. Gentler curves like the "neutral cool" and "medium warm" are very smooth and I would like to be printing this new VM ink with curves in that range.

So with that in mind, I am considering mixing up some Sepia-VM with a smaller gamut approach for the 1280. Give up a full sepia tone in exchange for more subtle control near the "neutral" point of the ink set. Maybe reduce the yellow and magenta to 1/3 or 1/4 the current amounts.

Paul, in the past you were mixing inks by measuring them with syringes but I recall you mentioned you had switched to an electronic balance. Do your earlier formulas where you specified it as "x parts of a to y parts of b" translate from volume to weight directly? What make and model are you using?

Back in November you were looking at the Sepia-VM and posted this formula:

"The sepia toner formula is 4 parts Yellow pigs (the newer, much more
fade-resistant version sold by MIS as "FS yellow"), 2 parts magenta pigs, 3
parts MIS "25" and 3  parts MIS clear base."

Is this close to the Sepia-VM I just got from MIS?

I want to try a Y:M:MIS25:Clear of 4:2:9:9 or even 4:2:21:21 which should give me a tone with the VM neutral curve that is close to the tone I got with the medium warm and the warm in combination.

Do you know if a mix of 8 parts toner to 2 parts clear is the proper dilution for the photo position of the toner?


Of course a six channel RIP could make for the ultimate VM in a six ink printer. You could use a neutral black and two shades of gray in three chambers and separate C, Y and M toners in the other three. Should be able to get any tone you want if you write the proper curves. At least in theory.

Martin Wesley


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Next I tried some combination layers of a "medium warm" curve over 
a "warm"
(actually neutral with these inks) and set the "medium warm" upper 
layer's
opacity to 50% and then 25%. 

Martin,
How do you do this - using different curves on different portions of 
an image ?
thanks
Frank