Digital BW, The Print

Recently I was printing for one of the print exchanges that we 
sponsor, and was having a very difficult time with my normal routine. 
I was printing with the PiezographyBW (R9) driver on an Epson 1160 
with MIS FSN inks using Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 188. 

The print has a rather large section of light-middle gray (20-40%)in 
the sky. That section of the print was showing an incredible amount 
of microbanding while the rest of the print looked great. I did all 
the usual: nozzle check - it was perfect, alignment - no problems, 
adjusted the output resolution - didn't help. I was thoroughly 
frustrated and ready to move on to another image. 

As a last ditch effort I decided to use John Woolf's curves for the 
Epson driver and wouldn't you know it, beautiful. In fact, the print 
was much more neutral. The Piezo (R9)driver prints the FSN inks very 
cool while the Epson driver with Woolf's curves printed very neutral. 
The blacks were much blacker, as many others have attested to. The 
dot pattern is more prominent, but acceptable. Overall it was 
interesting to see the difference with these inks and best of all 
resolve the microbanding. 

While I have not noticed the banding on every print I've made, on 
this one it was unavoidable, and switching drivers did the trick. In 
most cases the Piezo (R9) driver has done very well, and the choice 
of profiles has been very helpful. The dot pattern is non existent. 
But in this case the Epson driver with appropriate curves was the 
tool for the job. 

I just thought this experience might be helpful for anyone else out 
there experiencing similiar problems.

Gregory Schern
Inkjet Goodies - Photographic and Fine Art Inkjet Supplies
www.inkjetgoodies.com
info@...

Greg,

When are the prints for exchange shipping? Best regards.

Shilesh
--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Gregory Schern" 
<gschern@y...> wrote:
> Recently I was printing for one of the print exchanges that we 
> sponsor, and was having a very difficult time with my normal 
routine. 
> I was printing with the PiezographyBW (R9) driver on an Epson 1160 
> with MIS FSN inks using Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 188. 
> 
> The print has a rather large section of light-middle gray (20-40%)
in 
> the sky. That section of the print was showing an incredible amount 
> of microbanding while the rest of the print looked great. I did all 
> the usual: nozzle check - it was perfect, alignment - no problems, 
> adjusted the output resolution - didn't help. I was thoroughly 
> frustrated and ready to move on to another image. 
> 
> As a last ditch effort I decided to use John Woolf's curves for the 
> Epson driver and wouldn't you know it, beautiful. In fact, the 
print 
> was much more neutral. The Piezo (R9)driver prints the FSN inks 
very 
> cool while the Epson driver with Woolf's curves printed very 
neutral. 
> The blacks were much blacker, as many others have attested to. The 
> dot pattern is more prominent, but acceptable. Overall it was 
> interesting to see the difference with these inks and best of all 
> resolve the microbanding. 
> 
> While I have not noticed the banding on every print I've made, on 
> this one it was unavoidable, and switching drivers did the trick. 
In 

> most cases the Piezo (R9) driver has done very well, and the choice 
> of profiles has been very helpful. The dot pattern is non existent. 
> But in this case the Epson driver with appropriate curves was the 
> tool for the job. 
> 
> I just thought this experience might be helpful for anyone else out 
> there experiencing similiar problems.
> 
> Gregory Schern
> Inkjet Goodies - Photographic and Fine Art Inkjet Supplies
> www.inkjetgoodies.com
> info@i...

Wednesday, September 25, 2002, 10:04:57 AM, Shilesh Jani wrote:

SJ> Greg,

SJ> When are the prints for exchange shipping? Best regards.

SJ> Shilesh

Shilesh,

I spoke with Greg this morning on the phone and he said they were
going out today.

Best regards,
 Richard  

mailto:richard@...

Links to my galleries:
http://fujirangefinder.com/document.php?id=246

>
>As a last ditch effort I decided to use John Woolf's curves for the
>Epson driver and wouldn't you know it, beautiful. In fact, the print
>was much more neutral. The Piezo (R9)driver prints the FSN inks very
>cool while the Epson driver with Woolf's curves printed very neutral.
>The blacks were much blacker, as many others have attested to. The
>dot pattern is more prominent, but acceptable. Overall it was
>interesting to see the difference with these inks and best of all
>resolve the microbanding.
>


Interesting to see this post. My story is not exactly on the pizo 
topic, but very close.  I had an experience today while printing a 
set of samples out for a client.  The previous day I was having a lot 
of trouble using the MIS-VM workflow on a my 1160.  I had not been 
using that for a while, but a the client wanted to compare the color 
toned black and white prints from one image with a pure black and 
white with no tone. I needed to print a good quad print.

I spent an hour making several tests on a letter size sheet. Nothing 
was working well..It was late and I finally went to bed deciding to 
try to do better in the morning with a clear head`.

This morning I came in to do another test and it turned out perfect! 
At first I couldn't figure out what changed... then while looking at 
the screen I discovered that I was using a desaturated RGB image 
WITHOUT applying the false color curves of that VM workflow.

The great print on the 1160 with quad inks came from using a profile 
I made for  my 1280 for Hahn Photo Rag 308 with MIS Archival Pigment 
Color inks.

Question...has anyone else successfully used the MIS-VM inks without 
applying the false color Roark curves?

Bill Agee
-- 

bill agee studio
capistrano beach, ca / laguna beach, ca

http://www.redsilver.com