Digital BW, The Print

So, apparently Epson has (kinda) officially launched the 4000.  See 
this month's American Photo and this link: 
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1013&message=6385546

I haven't heard anything more about its B&W capabilities, however.  I 
recall reading somewhere that it is advertised by Epson as printing 
neutral or toned B&W out of the box, but I take the claim of 
neutrality with great skepticism (after all, that's what they said 
about the 2200/7600/9600).

Does anyone have any info on what changes Epson has made w. regard to 
B&W printing?  I know there are now 8 inks, but as I understand it, 
the "eighth" ink just means you can have photo black and matte black 
loaded at the same time and switch via software.  Are they providing 
new profiles for B&W?  (I have yet to see any profile that actually 
makes a truly neutral print under varying lighting conditions).  Or 
have they made modifications to their software so that it operates 
like ImagePrint's grayscale engine (which actually does produce 
neutral B&W)?  AND, if it is a software modification, a whole lotta 
2200/7600/9600 users are gonna be mighty pissed if it's not also made 
available as a driver update for those printers).

So, do we have any reason to believe that the 4000 will handle B&W 
differently (better) than existing Ultrachrome models?

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, 
"chipcarterdc" <chipcarterdc@h...> wrote:
> So, apparently Epson has (kinda) officially launched the 4000.  
See 
> this month's American Photo and this link: 
> 
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1013&mes
sage=6385546
> 
Hi

I've had several different bits of info about the 4000 sent to me 
and have included them (and photos) at 
<http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/epson4000.html>

From a B/W perspective, the one that caught my attention was 
the supposed B/W driver improvements "New drivers that 
significantly enhance black and white printing ability, without 
purchase of additional RIP. Toned black and white prints are 
also said to be directly supported."

If anyone has any more info ... please let me know and I'll add it 
to the page. 

I suppose that since the announcement in question was from 
Epson US, it could mean that they are going to include the gray 
balancer s/w :-) :-)

bye for now

Keith Cooper