Digital BW, The Print

I missed a day in the forum postings, so my response may be a bit off.


>> I was under the impression that ultrachromes were less archival than
>> other inksets (generations for instance)

My tests show the UC inkset, when printed as a B&W, is about as good as it
gets.  This suggests the color pigs are also better than the older 3rd party
color pigments, but I have not tested each color by itself against the MIS
or MediaStreet older color pigments.

Jim wrote:

>... Almost invariably the  PiezoBW/MIS ink warms on
>almost every paper I tried.

Yes, I'm convinced now that it is dye burning off and leaving the warm
carbon to show through.  The pure carbon pigments that MIS and Cone now use
do warm a bit, but it's just a fraction of what the old inks did.

> The most stable paper was Eclipse, it beat out photorag.

My older tests found this also.  The latest one makes it look like the
situation is reversed with the all-pigment inks.  Eclipse showed/caused
relatively high warming of the inks.

>... previous tests with MIS ink would show warming that was
>MUCH more obvious at a glance in 1/3 to 1/2 the exposure time.

Yes, serious warming is a thing of the past.  We won't miss it.

Also, relating to the 1280 clogs, etc., we won't miss the co-solvent inks.
The co-solvent appears to evaporate faster (and through the CIS tubing),
causing more that it's fair share of trouble.  The new high-load black can
achieve the same level of black with better lightfastness and no co-solvent.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Roark"
<paul.roark@v...> wrote:
<snip>

> Also, relating to the 1280 clogs, etc., we won't miss the co-solvent
inks.
> The co-solvent appears to evaporate faster (and through the CIS tubing),
> causing more that it's fair share of trouble.  The new high-load
black can
> achieve the same level of black with better lightfastness and no
co-solvent.
> 
> Paul
> http://www.PaulRoark.com

Paul, does this mean that I could put your ver 4.3 UC MIS in my now
idle 1280, and you would expect far less clogging, maybe as
troublefree as my 2200/Epson UC? Might be interesting..
Jim H.

Jim,

>>... relating to the 1280 clogs, etc., we won't miss the
>>co-solvent inks.
>> The co-solvent appears to evaporate faster
>>(and through the CIS tubing),
>> causing more than it's fair share of trouble.
>>The new high-load black can
>> achieve the same level of black with better
>>lightfastness and no co-solvent.
>

>Paul, does this mean that I could put your ver 4.3 UC MIS in my now
>idle 1280, and you would expect far less clogging, maybe as
>trouble free as my 2200/Epson UC? Might be interesting..

It would be an interesting experiment.  If the UC VM 4.3 is ever going to
clog, I'd bet on your environment showing it.

I can't really say, but I think that the co-solvent in the VM, FS and
PiezoBW black was part of the problem with those inksets.  There was quite a
bit of co-solvent in the PiezoBW mid-tones also, judging by the smell.

The VM midtones do not have co-solvent in them.  So, they should have
clogged less, all else being equal.

The UC VM 4.3 uses an entirely different base.  So, how it will do in
comparison to these others is a bit of an unknown to me.  MIS seems to think
it will be substantially better than the co-solvent inks.

Judging by how good the rest of the MIS 7600 inkset is, I would expect that
the chemists and engineers who put it together considered the clogging
issues as well as the others.  And they sure seem to have done an excellent
job on the issues I can test for.

My experience is that the new UC VM inks do not clog.  I've reached the
point where I don't even run a nozzle check on the 7500 before printing a
large image.  I've run through a half cart (i.e., about 50 ml) in the 7500
with no problems.  On the 1160 I've run through dozens of carts with no
clogs -- just the occasional air bubble after a new cart is installed.  So
it looks promising -- but I'm not in your environment.  So, no guarantees.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com