Yahoo Groups archive

Digital BW, The Print

Index last updated: 2026-04-28 22:56 UTC

Thread

WYSIWYP ink formula and workflow for 1280

WYSIWYP ink formula and workflow for 1280

2003-03-03 by Steven Karafyllakis <stevek@evcom.net>

Hello all;

Between buying a wide-format printer and all the excitement and 
hushed (we're all sooo restrained about it) anticipation of all 
these new printing solutions coming on line, I'd almost set aside my 
1280 and the custom ink-set I'd been working on for it. Today while 
refilling some carts (and swearing at the nuisance of it)  it slowly 
sank in that there may still be a temporary need for this ink-set 
among 1280 users: Paul's new VM set may not be available for this 
machine for a while, and may well be based on the same curves (Paul 
might give us his thoughts on this). If that's the case, if you had 
a 1280 (as I do) that doesn't work well with those curves, you still 
have a problem. Cone's new profiling system will be available first 
for the Cannons and then for Epsons, so it may be a few weeks to a 
few months for that, and PixelPixasso, well, who knows. At any rate, 
I've decided to post the mix and settings; hopefully it'll provide a 
workable solution for some of the 1280 owners who can't use the VM 
curves, until something better comes along. Although, for my 1280, 
the only real weak points are the life-span issue, and the lack of 
variable tone. 

There's a link on my website: http://www.stevekphoto.com


I would appreciate some feedback from anyone who tries it.

Steve k

Re: WYSIWYP ink formula and workflow for 1280 (Roark please chime in)

2003-03-03 by Shilesh Jani <shilesh.jani@smith-nephew.

Steve,

Thank you for this tip.  The key insight you had was to make the 
density of cyan the same as magenta, and photocyan the same as 
photomagenta.  I am surprised you made the density of yellow greater 
than the photocyan and photomagenta.  I use the FS inks in a very 
similar fashion to your method:

Cyan and magenta = dark ink (cyan FS ink)
Photocyan and photomagenta = medium ink (magenta FS ink)
Yellow = light ink (yellow FS ink).

This produces WYSISYP for Eclipse Satine papers. For EAM and 
Hahenemuhle line, the 90 and 95% need slight lightening, while the 5 
and 10% need slight darkening.

It will be interesting to see if the new Piezography system does not 
use this ink arrangment.  It would be amenable to profiling based 
purely on density, not on color based saparation.  The Epson driver 
(and Canon, no doubt) does this very well!

Regards.

Shilesh

PS: Excellent photographs on your web-site.  Wish you would 
participate in O'Connell's print exchanges so I could get some of 
your prints.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Steven 
Karafyllakis <stevek@e...>" <stevek@e...> wrote:
> Hello all;
> 
> Between buying a wide-format printer and all the excitement and 
> hushed (we're all sooo restrained about it) anticipation of all 
> these new printing solutions coming on line, I'd almost set aside 
my 
> 1280 and the custom ink-set I'd been working on for it. Today while 
> refilling some carts (and swearing at the nuisance of it)  it 
slowly 
> sank in that there may still be a temporary need for this ink-set 
> among 1280 users: Paul's new VM set may not be available for this 
> machine for a while, and may well be based on the same curves (Paul 
> might give us his thoughts on this). If that's the case, if you had 
> a 1280 (as I do) that doesn't work well with those curves, you 
still 
> have a problem. Cone's new profiling system will be available first 
> for the Cannons and then for Epsons, so it may be a few weeks to a 
> few months for that, and PixelPixasso, well, who knows. At any 
rate, 
> I've decided to post the mix and settings; hopefully it'll provide 
a 
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> workable solution for some of the 1280 owners who can't use the VM 
> curves, until something better comes along. Although, for my 1280, 
> the only real weak points are the life-span issue, and the lack of 
> variable tone. 
> 
> There's a link on my website: http://www.stevekphoto.com
> 
> 
> I would appreciate some feedback from anyone who tries it.
> 
> Steve k

Re: WYSIWYP ink formula and workflow for 1280 (Roark please chime in)

2003-03-03 by Steven Karafyllakis <stevek@evcom.net>

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Shilesh Jani 
<shilesh.jani@s...>" <shilesh.jani@s...> wrote:
> Steve,
> 
>>  The key insight you had was to make the 
> density of cyan the same as magenta, and photocyan the same as 
> photomagenta.

I actually have been using a different density for each ink; In the 
end it just got too tedious keeping track & refilling, etc., so I 
averaged out each pair, and it worked just as well... the KISS 
principle in action. 

I am surprised you made the density of yellow greater 
> than the photocyan and photomagenta. 

The biggest problem I had with this was maintaining good contrast in 
the mid-range; too much ink and the midtones posterize, too little 
and the highlights suffer. Making the yellow higher density seems to 
give better highlight detail without filling in the mid tones.

>>and I use the FS inks in a very 
> similar fashion to your method:
> 
> Cyan and magenta = dark ink (cyan FS ink)
> Photocyan and photomagenta = medium ink (magenta FS ink)
> Yellow = light ink (yellow FS ink).

I started by doing something very similar to this with the VM inks; 
It got to be too much nuisance to color-balnce those inks however, 
and I was not comfortable with the stability of the toners- my own 
informal fade tests indicated that they color-shifted quicker than a 
pure black inkset, though the difference probably wasn't that 
significant
> 
> This produces WYSISYP for Eclipse Satine papers. For EAM and 
> Hahenemuhle line, the 90 and 95% need slight lightening, while the 
5 
> and 10% need slight darkening.
> 
> It will be interesting to see if the new Piezography system does 
not 
> use this ink arrangment. 

I suspect Cone has set up his profiling system on his existing ink 
arrangement, whatever that is. After all, he can't stop producing 
those inks yet, so why come up with a whole new set of 
densities>carts>bottles, etc.?
>
> It would be amenable to profiling based 
> purely on density, not on color based saparation.  The Epson 
driver 
> (and Canon, no doubt) does this very well!
> 
> Regards.
> 
> Shilesh
> 
> PS: Excellent photographs on your web-site.  Wish you would 
> participate in O'Connell's print exchanges so I could get some of 
> your prints.

Thanks-and I will participate, as soon as I can get away from 
refilling carts-it's just too much nuisance!

Steve K
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Steven 
> Karafyllakis <stevek@e...>" <stevek@e...> wrote:
> > Hello all;
> > 
> > Between buying a wide-format printer and all the excitement and 
> > hushed (we're all sooo restrained about it) anticipation of all 
> > these new printing solutions coming on line, I'd almost set 
aside 
> my 
> > 1280 and the custom ink-set I'd been working on for it. Today 
while 
> > refilling some carts (and swearing at the nuisance of it)  it 
> slowly 
> > sank in that there may still be a temporary need for this ink-
set 
> > among 1280 users: Paul's new VM set may not be available for 
this 
> > machine for a while, and may well be based on the same curves 
(Paul 
> > might give us his thoughts on this). If that's the case, if you 
had 
> > a 1280 (as I do) that doesn't work well with those curves, you 
> still 
> > have a problem. Cone's new profiling system will be available 
first 
> > for the Cannons and then for Epsons, so it may be a few weeks to 
a 
> > few months for that, and PixelPixasso, well, who knows. At any 
> rate, 
> > I've decided to post the mix and settings; hopefully it'll 
provide 
> a 
> > workable solution for some of the 1280 owners who can't use the 
VM 
> > curves, until something better comes along. Although, for my 
1280, 
> > the only real weak points are the life-span issue, and the lack 
of 
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> > variable tone. 
> > 
> > There's a link on my website: http://www.stevekphoto.com
> > 
> > 
> > I would appreciate some feedback from anyone who tries it.
> > 
> > Steve k

Move to quarantaine

This moves the raw source file on disk only. The archive index is not changed automatically, so you still need to run a manual refresh afterward.