Digital BW, The Print

>>My only comment would be that in the world of B&W photography where silver
>fiber sets the standard, 80 years would not be considered archival.
>Photographs from the 1800's are still going strong so I think we need a
>print life of 150+ years if not more. This assumes you care about archival
>prints or want to get involved with all the issues around "fine art" print
>sales.
>
Thanks for your responses, Sam and Martin. My next question is why I read so
much about piezo inks and rarely hear mention of the Lyson quad black inks.
I ended up trying them because they are much less expensive and don't
require software - so it was just easy! And as I said I think the prints are
beautiful. So, is there something I should know about these inks that would
sway me towards the piezotones? Thanks.

Lynne Siler
http://www.lynnesiler.com 


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Heavy Metamerism?

Jerry




Lynne Siler wrote:

> 
> >>My only comment would be that in the world of B&W photography where silver
> >fiber sets the standard, 80 years would not be considered archival.
> >Photographs from the 1800's are still going strong so I think we need a
> >print life of 150+ years if not more. This assumes you care about archival
> >prints or want to get involved with all the issues around "fine art" print
> >sales.
> >
> Thanks for your responses, Sam and Martin. My next question is why I read so
> much about piezo inks and rarely hear mention of the Lyson quad black inks.
> I ended up trying them because they are much less expensive and don't
> require software - so it was just easy! And as I said I think the prints are
> beautiful. So, is there something I should know about these inks that would
> sway me towards the piezotones? Thanks.
> 
> Lynne Siler
> http://www.lynnesiler.com
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
> 
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Lynne,

I use both Lyson Quads and MIS FS.  The only reason I
keep the Lyson set up is for glossy prints and only
for rush jobs.  If it's not a rush job, I still send
out to a pro lab.

In other words, if you don't need glossy prints, I see
no use for the highly metameric Lyson inks.  Lyson
even mentions this on their FAQ.  To paraphrase:  If
you don't like the way your print looks under tungsten
lighting, change your lighting.

Plus, it's less expensive to print with MIS inks
because a couple of people on this list (Paul Roark,
and Jeff Randall - thank you, both) have created
curves to work with these inks, so you don't need any
expensive software.

Thom

> question is why I read so
> much about piezo inks and rarely hear mention of the
> Lyson quad black inks.
> I ended up trying them because they are much less
> expensive and don't
> require software - so it was just easy! And as I
> said I think the prints are
> beautiful. So, is there something I should know
> about these inks that would
> sway me towards the piezotones? Thanks.
> 
> Lynne Siler
> http://www.lynnesiler.com

>[snip] Thanks for your responses, Sam and Martin. My next question 
>is why I read so
>much about piezo inks and rarely hear mention of the Lyson quad black inks.
>I ended up trying them because they are much less expensive and don't
>require software - so it was just easy! And as I said I think the prints are
>beautiful. So, is there something I should know about these inks that would
>sway me towards the piezotones? Thanks.
>
>Lynne Siler
>http://www.lynnesiler.com

Jerry's and Bruce's comments give me pause. But I haven't recently 
heard anything else about Lysonic-E quad tones that might push you 
away from them and toward PiezoTones.

I used to hear it said that Lysonic inks clogged a lot. But I now 
think that those "clogs" were air bubbles caused by people trying, 
unsuccessfully, to re-fill cartridges so they could buy Lysonic-E in 
bulk and therefore less expensively. That's not to say that you can't 
learn to re-fill successfully; some subscribers to this list do it so 
they can test a variety of ink sets.

Photoshop wasn't among the software you were trying to avoid was it? 
Nearly all quad tone options involve Photoshop "plugin" software. But 
not necessarily printer "driver" software other than the drivers 
Epson provides. The Piezo driver, incidentally, was just unbundled, 
so it's now less expensive to use it.

You gave your URL this time. I looked at the images on your web page, 
concentrating on the ones not in color. And I was struck by the 
variety in tone among the other images. I don't think you could print 
them all with any one quad tone inkset other than either Lyson's 
Small Gamut (SG) or one of InkSupply.com's "Variable Mix" (VM) 
inksets, probably Sepia-Neutral. But I do think you might be able to 
print them all with Epson's new 2200 printer.

I hear it's neither easy nor inexpensive to change from or to a 
Lysonic-E inkset. That seems like an argument for sitting tight with 
the Lysonic-E you like until you can get a good feel for the 2200. 
I'd look at hard since you're interested both in color and in B&W in 
a variety of tones. Conceivably, the 2200 might do it all well.

I have the impression that a lot of us are wondering whether to have 
two 1270s/1280s/1290s or hope instead to be able to use just one 
2200. It seems to me an unusually complicated question. But if I had 
a good thing going with B&W on a 1270 I thought would last a while, 
I'd be tempted to get another, or a 1280, to use for color until the 
2200's successor comes along in a year or two. It's maybe a little 
off topic, but I wish someone had elaborated a few such models for 
the list to mull over.

Sam McCandless                      samcc@...