Digital BW, The Print

The discussion of printing on Ilford glossy and semi-glossy papers 
motivated me to try Epson semi-gloss (Color Life Paper).  I printed 
with the MIS-VM inks, a 1200 and the Paul Roark's curves (mw).  I 
tried both the "standard" Roark paper setting and "glossy film" (not 
a lot of difference between them).

The prints are surprisingly close to EAM with several important 
exceptions.  They are much warmer (is this bronzing?) and there is a 
considerable loss of detail in the shadow areas.  I assume the shadow 
detail can be fixed by playing with transfer curves and the warming, 
to some extent, by printing with either the neutral or cool curve.  
The real downside is that the inks rub off the paper and I gather 
that this will not go away with time, so some sort of a spray is in 
order. 

Any comments would be appreciated.  Would one of the Ilford papers be 
worth trying with the VM inks and a 1200?  Is it worth the trouble?  
Am I better off learning to coat EAM?

Steve

Okay, dumb question - how are things working out with the Ultrachrome inks
(and the two different blacks) and Paul's curves? Especially how is it
working on glossy papers (and which?)

A few days ago I had an inbox clean out and dumped lots of the messages from
this list. Then yesterday I was looking on the MIS site for ordering some
new inks and saw all the blurb on the Ultrachrome - which posts of course I
hadn't bothered reading on here.... doh!

anyone offer a quick synopsis of how it's going (and how's it working hot
swapping two types of black cartridges if you are using a CIS for the other
3 - on an 1160)

thanks

tim

Tim,

I was hoping others would answer this, but since they haven't, I'll make a
few comments.

>... how are things working out with the Ultrachrome inks
>(and the two different blacks) and Paul's curves? Especially how is it
>working on glossy papers (and which?)

I think the UT inkset on matte paper and with the new 1160 curves is a major
improvement over the old vm inks and older curves.  The UT inks were made to
work with the old curves, but, obviously, tweaking the curves for the new
inkset can help, and the old 1160 curves were the first I ever did and
suffered from that.  They were in need of upgrading.

On glossy paper the results depend on the paper used.  The UT inks and MIS
Photo black are near perfect on Epson Glossy Photo paper.  There is no
bronzing, no dusting, and the dmax is a respectable 1.8+.  (The Epson Photo
black only gave me 1.40 this week on that paper.)

On Premium Luster and Ilford Smooth Glossy, the MIS UT inks seem to dust
very slightly in the shadows (where there is a high load of pigments).  I
mixed an Epson UC based cyan for the UT inkset and that plus Epson Photo
Black took care of it.  The other remedy that made a near perfect print with
the UT inks on these papers was a spray.  I used Grumbacher Tuffilm
(available at art stores for a reasonable price).   The sprayed UT on a
pearl surface may be about as good as it gets for that type of
"photographic" look.  (Though I still like the matte under glass for the
fine art look.)

>... how's it working hot swapping two types of black cartridges
>if you are using a CIS for the other 3 - on an 1160

I'm not sure a CIS works with only 3 tubes.  I found the ribbon started to
flop around too much.  I'd like to hear from others on this also.

As to the swapping of black carts, I did a lot over the last few days,
testing MIS PK, Epson PK and Epson Archival K.  (Archival K is a hair better
on Premium Luster and Ilford, but not enough to justify it's shorter life.
Epson PK is a hair better on Premium Luster and Ilford, but much worse on
cheap Epson Photo paper.  It also doesn't do quite as well with spraying,
but it dusts less [not at all] on Premium Luster and Ilford.)

In general, I use tape instead of rivets on the outlets.  I think this
results in less air/fewer cleaning cycles.  I think I was getting good
nozzle checks after an average of 2 cleaning cycles and a page of black
purge printing with each swap.

Hope this helps.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com