Digital BW, The Print

I've been reviewing all the posts on the various Epson groups 
about metamerism, because I have to make a final decision 
about what inkset to use in my 7000 for printing a portfolio of 
black and white photographs. I have a pretty good sense of what 
the discussion has been, but still have a few questions.

Like many people, I would absolutely love to be able to print 
black and white images using color inks. If this is impractical 
because of metamerism, I am willing to dedicate my 7000 to 
quadtones, at least for now.

As I understand it, all the pigmented ink sets have some 
metamerism. Epson's pigs are the worst, Generations is pretty 
bad, and Cone's color piezos have little metamerism in most 
situations. However, Cone's inks do not give a good rich black.

Questions:

1. Is it feasible to use Generations black with Cone's color inkset 
to get better blacks? (I have seen reports of people mixing 
Generations black with MIS quad inks and Cone quad inks, 
which makes me optimistic. On the other hand, I have seen 
reports that adding any Generations black ink causes noticeable 
metamerism to appear.)

2. Is there any other way to print grayscale images using 
long-lasting color inks without getting strong metamerism or 
weak blacks?

3.  Why is metamerism not a problem with quadtone inksets that 
have pigments in them? (Especially when folks use Generations 
black in the mix...)

Thanks in advance for any help.

--David Stock

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., daviddstock@e... wrote:
snip...
> Questions:
> 
> 1. Is it feasible to use Generations black with Cone's color inkset 
> to get better blacks? (I have seen reports of people mixing 
> Generations black with MIS quad inks and Cone quad inks, 
> which makes me optimistic. On the other hand, I have seen 
> reports that adding any Generations black ink causes noticeable 
> metamerism to appear.)

That, I don't know.
> 
> 2. Is there any other way to print grayscale images using 
> long-lasting color inks without getting strong metamerism or 
> weak blacks?

John Nollendorf posted some interesting info a while back on the 9000 list about CMY blends, which would be high in neutral 
and near neutral prints, showing less longevity than a single ink. Dan may know more about this. Also, if the C, M, and Y inks 
fade at different rates, the print hue will change over time even before a noticable density change.
I also found it near impossible to eliminate all the little crossovers, and they will look different under different light. I think 
near neutrals display metamerism far worse than strong color.
> 
> 3.  Why is metamerism not a problem with quadtone inksets that 
> have pigments in them? (Especially when folks use Generations 
> black in the mix...)

Well, it does happen. But I think it's not a problem because the 2 popular pig quad sets remain relatively pleasing under 
different lighting and the change is not extreme. Lysonic quads, the only dye quad inks I've tried, had very unpleasant 
metamerism. That was the main reason I switched from them, and they were a bit too blue for me. Everything else about 
them was pretty great.
I'm raising more problems than solutions. J.P. Caponigro implied in an article that it can be done, if daddy taught him 
anything about printing standards, I'd think he'd be pretty picky. It was interesting to note Mark Tucker is switching to an 
MIS set. I think he's had as much experience printing mono with color inks as anyone.
Sorry I'm just confusing the issue, but I thought you might find some of the above interesting. I can tell you good profiles 
came much closer, maybe a good place to start.
Tyler