Digital BW, The Print

Can someone please tell me what are the best inks, papers or 
duotones for obtaining B&W photos that look the most similar 
possible as traditional lab B&W photos, and without green or other 
color casts? And is it better printing with the color ink option or 
just the Black ink option? 

Thankyou

I've been printing b&w, as well as color on a 1270 for about 3 months 
on a couple of different papers, Epson Heavy Weight Matte and Ilford 
Classic Pearl. Because I only have the one printer, and want to 
continue to be able to print color, I have not tried hextone inks.

The inks I have tried are Epson oem, and MIS "Epson equivalent" 
dyebased inks, to refill the oem T007 (black) and T009 (5-color) 
cartridges.

The MIS ink is a very close, but not quite perfect match of the oem 
ink. This doesn't really matter, as very slight adjustments in work 
flow render them identical for all purposes. Neither is archival, in 
fact I was getting a pronounced greenish --> brown color shift in 
black only prints within a few weeks, until I got some sleeves to 
protect them from direct air contact (the shift was not so noticeable 
in monochrome full color and 'real' full color prints).

The degree to which a given print might begin to resemble 
a 'traditional lab b & w photo' seems very dependent upon the 
particular negative and its tonal ranges. A black only print from the 
1270 is, in my limited experience, less likely to resemble 
the 'traditional' look. A monochrome print using all colors can be 
made to look more like a traditional b & w print, again depending on 
the negative. I just want to stress that, for me, some negatives work 
better printed black only, and others as [grey] monochromes using 
full color.

The two papers are wildly different in output, as you might expect. 
The Ilford Classic Pearl has a sheen similar to 'traditional' RC 
semimatte paper -- until you lay down ink on it. The ink is absorbed 
to an extent by the coating (I've heard it described as a 'gel') but 
the ink definitely sits on top and coats it, unevenly. It also 
doesn't dry as well or quickly, and seems subject to 'bronzing' even 
when sleeved. It looks nothing whatsoever like exposed and developed 
silver emulsion (in fact it looks more like a commercial litho print 
on some weird plasticized stock). In short, after printing it doesn't 
look any more like 'traditional' prints than the HWM; it is just 
different in a diferent way (it is also considerably more expensive).

The good news is that a lot of these differences seem to disappear as 
soon as the prints are framed under glass. Then it becomes more 
difficult to discern differences from traditional prints, unless you 
view them from an extreme angle as to be able to plainly see light 
reflected from the print surface. The other good news is that large 
digital prints seem to hold detail better, without visible grain that 
you would see in equivalent enlarger prints. 12 x 18" digital prints 
made from scanned, 35mm slides and negs can look as sharp to the 
naked eye as 'traditional', hand-printed 8 x10's -- and way better 
than lab prints. And my scanners are kind of crappy (an old Polaroid 
2000ppi slide scanner, and a new Epson 1660 3200x1600ppi flatbed 
photoscanner).

I'm sure someone with a lot more experience in digital printing than 
I, and with a more heterogenous and 'controlled' negative library 
could probably obtain more consistent results. I have several years 
of experience developing and printing b & w negatives by the 
traditional method using chemicals in trays, so I know what such 
prints look like.

From what I've read in here (and elsewhere), the 1270 may not be the 
best printer for digital b & w, if you are aiming for highest print 
quality, and archival prints using pigment-base inks.


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "hierrolopes" 
<hierrolopes@i...> wrote:

> Can someone please tell me what are the best inks, papers or 
> duotones for obtaining B&W photos that look the most similar 
> possible as traditional lab B&W photos, and without green or other 
> color casts? And is it better printing with the color ink option or 
> just the Black ink option? 
> 
> Thankyou