Digital BW, The Print

Regarding the "archival" qualities of the Epson ABW mode, I summarized some of the http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/ data on page 2 of http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/ . The bottom line is that the delta-e of the ABW mode was multiples of that of the 100% carbon pigment inksets. (With delta-e, lower is better.)

That is consistent with the observation that the ABW mode uses a fair amount of color and the gray inks themselves are blends of carbon and color.

Because the Aardenburg-Imaging tests did not isolate the Epson K3 LK in the tests, that is what I'll do in my next round. I'm curious how it performs.

While I'm obviously a fan of dedicated B&W inksets for those who focus on B&W and want the best quality (and value with the Eboni-based systems), the OEM ABW mode printing is very convenient for those who also want serious color and stable enough for most purposes.

For those like me, however, an Eboni carbon based B&W printer for high end B&W, and a Claria (or Noritsu branded Claria) dye setup for color as well as high gloss B&W is a very nice combination.

Paul

www.PaulRoark.com

Yes, QTR would allow you to use less color ink.

There was a test at Aardenburg-imaging that compared K3 ABW with QTR on Moab paper. At 100 MLux-hours of exposure (about 51 "Wilhelm" years of display), the ABW average delta-e was 1.4 compared to the QTR average 0.9 (lower is better). At Lab L = 52, the ABW delta-e was 2, for QTR it was 1.2. The most dramatic difference was that the ABW Lab B dropped 1.1 units, whereas the QTR Lab B was unchanged. The difference is almost certainly that the ABW's yellow ink component faded badly, whereas QTR probably had no yellow ink in it to start with.

The Lab A (at L = 52) dropped 0.3 for both samples. This is the tough one. It even drops with the silver prints. As a practical matter, holding it to 0.3 is very good.

Paul

www.PaulRoark.com