Digital BW, The Print

I just purchased an Epson 1280. I have printed some color prints 
and they look great using the supplied espson inks. However my 
intent was to use this primarely for B&W. I have been reading on 
both the MIS inks and the Piezography system. It appears from all 
the strings in this group that much of this is voodoo and takes a 
fair amount of fooling around to get right. I would like to try the 
piezography system and what is steering me is the new ICC profiles 
so I can use the epson driver. Is there enough information, 
manuals, and such included with the software to get me started 
correctly I will I have to endlessly write questions to this forum. 
Sorry for the sarcasm, but I am a beginner in the digital darkroom 
arena after years of doing my own silver based B&W in the darkroom. 
Any advice or suggetions would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks

Joe

Hello Joe,

Welcome to the forum and to digital BW.

>I have been reading on both the MIS inks and the Piezography 
>system. It appears from all the strings in this group that 
>much of this is voodoo and takes a fair amount of fooling 
>around to get right. 

Some people report very few problems and others have a difficult
struggle, and it can seem like voodoo at times.  There are a lot of
variables that can add up to your own experience, including how much
time and patience you have and how much you like to tinker.


>...I am a beginner in the digital darkroom arena after years 
>of doing my own silver based B&W in the darkroom. Any advice 
>or suggetions would be GREATLY appreciated.

There are many combinations of hardware, software and inks which
produce different results and suit different ways of working.  It's
tough to make a decision, and the problem is once you're invested in a
system it's expensive to change.  As general advice, do _lots_ of
reading and ask _lots_ of questions before plunking down the cash, and
look at actual results of different systems if you can. 

There is some general information for beginners on my web site (see
link below) if you haven't seen it already, sort of an overview of
things to consider.

Good luck!

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm