Digital BW, The Print

I have put a couple of cartridges of ink through my 1290 printer now, all onto Epson Archival Matte paper, and most of them complete rubbish. So what am I doing wrong?
I start with a colour image, scanned from a print, convert in Photoshop 7 using channel mixer on an adjustment layer, and then flatten to convert mode to greyscale. When I apply the gs curve to this file I get my best results but they are not something to jump up and down about. A lot of experimental prints hit the floor before there is anything of note to pin to the wall.
Today I started again, converted the file to greyscale and then back into RGB and applied the three RGB curves in selected rectangles on their own adjustment layers. The prints are awful. Only the part of the print that is not under a curve looks anything like a reasonable image. The rest are highly posterized and a complete mess.
Please advise.
John

John,
Which inkset are you using for printing? Epson's, MIS or what ?
What is the gs curve you are referring to ?

Your input as to these variables will greatly assist in the search 
for a solution to your printing problem.
Cheers,
Andre


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "wharfwalker" 
<jswhite@f...> wrote:
> I have put a couple of cartridges of ink through my 1290 printer 
now, all onto Epson Archival Matte paper, and most of them complete 
rubbish. So what am I doing wrong?
> I start with a colour image, scanned from a print, convert in 
Photoshop 7 using channel mixer on an adjustment layer, and then 
flatten to convert mode to greyscale. When I apply the gs curve to 
this file I get my best results but they are not something to jump up 
and down about. A lot of experimental prints hit the floor before 
there is anything of note to pin to the wall.
> Today I started again, converted the file to greyscale and then 
back into RGB and applied the three RGB curves in selected rectangles 
on their own adjustment layers. The prints are awful. Only the part 
of the print that is not under a curve looks anything like a 
reasonable image. The rest are highly posterized and a complete mess.
> Please advise.
> John

Well this might seem like a silly and obvious response, but if you 
are using color ink to produce a black and white print then you'll 
want to convert the image back into RGB to print properly.



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "wharfwalker" 
<jswhite@f...> wrote:
> I have put a couple of cartridges of ink through my 1290 printer 
now, all onto Epson Archival Matte paper, and most of them complete 
rubbish. So what am I doing wrong?
> I start with a colour image, scanned from a print, convert in 
Photoshop 7 using channel mixer on an adjustment layer, and then 
flatten to convert mode to greyscale. When I apply the gs curve to 
this file I get my best results but they are not something to jump up 
and down about. A lot of experimental prints hit the floor before 
there is anything of note to pin to the wall.
> Today I started again, converted the file to greyscale and then 
back into RGB and applied the three RGB curves in selected rectangles 
on their own adjustment layers. The prints are awful. Only the part 
of the print that is not under a curve looks anything like a 
reasonable image. The rest are highly posterized and a complete mess.
> Please advise.
> John

Sorry about the lack of info. I am using MIS VM inks in an Epson 1290 printer.
John