2002-07-01 by Sam A. McCandless
Hello, ? (You forgot to give your name.)
To start with your last question: I'm on a few Yahoo lists and don't
get spammed much. What little I do get is about half from
"subscribers" abusing the lists (and who apparently joined for the
purpose) and, as best I can tell, about half from poor cookie
management or some other lapse on my part. Whatever, to reduce it
further I think I'd have to change my e-mail address frequently.
I don't know for which printer Piezo (BW I guess) used to cost $900,
but the new and well-received PiezoTones are, I believe, less
expensive across the board. So is what I think is the functional
equivalent of the PiezoBW stuff from DigitalArtSupplies.com as
Sundance inks and R9 plug in (with profiles?). I think InkJetMall.com
would make a Piezo print for you to consider. I'd look at the new
PiezoTones rather than the PiezoBW inks.
Another third-party place you didn't mention is MIS Associates at
InkSupply.com. They have several quadtone inksets. From visiting your
web site, I think you ought to look hard at their relatively new
Variable Mix (VM) Sepia-Neutral (or just "Sepia") inks, which is what
I use to re-print old photos. By varying the mix, you can have the
prints range from neutral to sepia. Actually the mix is varied by
Photoshop according to which "curve" you load. Curves are provided,
but you can adjust them or roll your own. And you might have to in
order to get exactly what you want.
As for Luminous, Lyson, and Canon, I don't think Canon is promising
for your purposes, I believe Luminous is Lyson re-branded, and I
think Lyson's Small Gamut (SG) inkset is probably the most
appropriate Lyson inkset for the sample of your images I saw on your
web site. But I'm not sure it's long-lived enough for you to sell
comfortably.
Wilhelm has been testing Lyson's SG; you might wait for him to finish
while experimenting with MIS's Sepia(-Neutral). I'd consider printing
the for-sale prints on Crane's Museo (which InkSupply.com also
sells). But I'd proof on Epson Archival Matte (EAM), which is
becoming Epson Enhanced Matte (EEM), which is conveniently and
inexpensively available at Atlex.com. If you like your images on it,
I think you'll love them on Museo, which is acid-free (EAM/EEM isn't)
and also optical-brightner free.
The 2000 I don't know much about. But I think it does better at color
prints. And I'd consider selling it to someone who prints color and
getting a 1280 to use, once you decide which inks to print with, with
a NoMoreCarts.com Continuous Ink Supply (CIS), which MediaStreet.com
sells as "Niagra". I use an 1160. But for at least for some of your
small prints, I think the 1280 would be better, and besides the 1160
is now discontinued. Epson's about-to-be-released 2200 is another
possibility, but it's an unknown quantity, and I expect it will be
relatively expensive to use for lack of a CIS to go with it, at least
for some time.
The CIS has to be installed but it's so easy to do that it shouldn't
cost much to get that done for you. But I wouldn't. I'm not "handy"
but found it easy and learned a few things I'm glad to know.
It's not a wild goose chase. It is a project. But if it's a thrill to
see the prints come out of your printer, as it is for me, then it's
worth it.
Sam McCandless samcc@...
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>Hi, I'm a newbie here. Found this site as a result of my frustration
>with getting decent ouput from Inkjet printers from grayscale
>files.
>
>I'm involved in the restoration of about 400 medium (actually an
>odd size) scans of glass plate negatives taken in the middle
>east circa 1927 (see www.epicvisions.org).
>
>For our smaller output we purchased an Epson 2000p. As you
>can imagine, the results (to put it mildly) suck. The tonal quality
>is awful unless you set the printer to black ink only, but then there
>is an unacceptable pattern overlaid on the image. Epson claims
>to not support printing photos with black ink only. I have tried
>tweaking just about every setting imaginable, and nothing is of
>the quality I would sell. The only decent images I get are when I
>convert to duotone and then print with the photo-enhance Sepia
>setting -- but then I am unable to tweak that setting to get the
>precise toning I'm looking for.
>
>Yes, I know about Piezo, but I'm not ready to spend another $900
>on some technology I have to install myself (I am not very goo
>with stuff like that) and have not see any results from live.
>
>What I am trying to find, and can't seem to is a printer with decent
>output which can use *unmodified* some sort of third party
>grayscale or sepia ink set (such as from Luminos, Lyson, or
>someone else I haven't heard of yet). That new Canon 9000
>looks great, but I haven't seen any ink sets available for it.
>
>Am I on a wild goose chase here? Can someone point me in
>the right direction........
>
>By the way. I was hesitant to join this group because every other
>time I've joined a Yahoo group resulted in a ton of SPAM. Any
>clues on how to avoid this?