Digital BW, The Print

Thomas Fors wrote:

>...

>I also stumbled across a technical brief on Epson Archival Inks at
>http://files.support.epson.com/pdf/pro55_/pro55_ta.pdf
>where they explain a little about the differences between
>their archival pigment inks and conventional pigment inks.
> I don't know how old this information is, but at the Epson
>Print Academy, Vincent Versace displayed
>the same slide portraying Epson's MicroCrystal Encapsulation
>Technology while talking about UltraChrome inks.

The above file is dated 10/00.  So, it's "old."

I also found this in my reading, and what I found most amusing is that
virtually the same pictures on page 2 talking about the "Appropriate light
reflection" between Archival ink and standard pigments are now used to
compare the UltraChrome pigments to Epson Archival pigments.

This brochure is the only one I've found that shows that the coatings are
irregular as opposed to perfectly round.  I suspect they may have made
incremental improvements in the process over the last 2 years.

>Finally, looking at the MSDS sheets for the 2200 UltraChrome inks, it
>appears a major difference between Photo Black and Matte Black is
>that Photo Black contains carbon black and more glycerols.
> Matte Black has no carbon black, but contains more proprietary
>dyes and pigments, more proprietary
>organic materials, and less Glycerols.

This is interesting.  I would have guessed that the brownish Matte Black was
a raw carbon color.  The Archival black, which I'm guessing is the same as
Photo Black, is so neutral that I would have guessed that it had more of the
dyes in it to neutralize the alleged carbon brown color.  Maybe "carbon
brown" is another one of these urban myths.

>It looks like UltraChrome Photo Black is a closer relative
>to Epson Archival Black than Matte Black is.  Archival Black
>also contains carbon black, but
>has less proprietary dyes and pigments, more proprietary
>organic materials, and less glycerols.

Is this relative to the Photo black?  So, you've found some differences it
looks like.

I've been told that the UC inks have a new base that allows a higher ink
load -- more particles per volume.  However, the dmax for the Photo Black
that Robert just posted is identical to what I'm getting with the Archival k
in the 7500.  But, we're using different printers, so maybe the identical
dmax is just a coincidence.

Do you have a URL for the MSDS sheets?

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com