Digital BW, The Print

So now we´ll have an Epson where we can stick 8 ink cartridges,the 4000. 
Wouldn´t it be possible to load 3 or 4 slots with blacks and gray dilutions,4 or 5 with color,and by writing a proper driver (what does not seem a great deal for those who work in this field)  having a printer capable of printing perfect BW  and color at the same time with no more hassles? Considering that it's known that only three shades of gray are necesssary to do the BW trick(so said Jon Cone) and 4 colour printers were quite good  before the six colors came to be (surely not as good,but good enough) maybe this could the holy grail of BW and color printers...
Any thoughts?


André Vallejo
http://andrevallejo.net


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Tue, 2003-12-30 at 18:14, André Vallejo wrote:

> So now we´ll have an Epson where we can stick 8 ink cartridges,the 4000. 
> Wouldn´t it be possible to load 3 or 4 slots with blacks and gray 
> dilutions,4 or 5 with color,and by writing a proper driver (what does
> not seem a great deal for those who work in this field)  having a 
> printer capable of printing perfect BW  and color at the same time
> with no more hassles? Considering that it's known that only three 
> shades of gray are necesssary to do the BW trick(so said Jon Cone) 
> and 4 colour printers were quite good  before the six colors came to 
> be (surely not as good,but good enough) maybe this could the holy 
> grail of BW and color printers...
> Any thoughts?
> 
> 
> André Vallejo
> http://andrevallejo.net


I speculate that the reason that Epson won't do this is because of the
way their print heads work. That is, if you wave them around in the air
and don't squirt ink, the heads that aren't in use dry out. A dried out
head is a clogged head.

I'm not being facetious. I use the 7600 like this. I've got seven
"heads" to work with. Using Cone's Piezotone inks, I've got two sets of
gray inks (selenium and warm neutral in this case) which share a common
black. When I print, I use just four "heads" at a time. Invariably, when
I print something big that takes a fair amount of time (half and hour or
more), the "heads" that are not being used clog up. This in a closed
room with a humidifier sitting right next to the printer so that it is
always 50% RH. 

Now, if you could keep the unused heads capped...


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Humm...that seems like a problem...maybe someone smarter then I can 
came up with a solution!

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, hogarth 
<hogarth@s...> wrote:
> I print something big that takes a fair amount of time (half and 
hour or
> more), the "heads" that are not being used clog up. This in a 
closed
> room with a humidifier sitting right next to the printer so that 
it is

> always 50% RH. 
> 
> Now, if you could keep the unused heads capped...
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

How about two printers? Each being one of the old tried and true
models costing way less than half of a new 4000. Of course, then you
wouldn't be on that leading edge trying to figure out how to make a
new printer work without a developed infrastructure of users. 

Or, am I just too practical to be any fun?

Bob Michaels

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Andre Vallejo da
Silva" <avs@p...> wrote:

> Humm...that seems like a problem...maybe someone smarter then I can 
> came up with a solution!
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, hogarth 
> <hogarth@s...> wrote:
> > I print something big that takes a fair amount of time (half and 
> hour or
> > more), the "heads" that are not being used clog up. This in a 
> closed
> > room with a humidifier sitting right next to the printer so that 
> it is
> > always 50% RH. 
> > 
> > Now, if you could keep the unused heads capped...
> > 
> > 
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I don't know, my "tried and true" Epson 1280 gives me nothing but 
clogged nozzle hell.  Supposedly the 4000 will correct nozzle 
problems... 
 
 
--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Michaels" 
<bob@b...> wrote: 
> How about two printers? Each being one of the old tried and true 
> models costing way less than half of a new 4000. Of course, then 
you 
> wouldn't be on that leading edge trying to figure out how to make a 
> new printer work without a developed infrastructure of users.  
>  
> Or, am I just too practical to be any fun? 
>  
> Bob Michaels 
>  
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Andre Vallejo 
da 
> Silva" <avs@p...> wrote: 
> > Humm...that seems like a problem...maybe someone smarter then I 
can  
> > came up with a solution! 
> >  
> > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, hogarth  
> > <hogarth@s...> wrote: 
> > > I print something big that takes a fair amount of time (half 
and  
> > hour or 
> > > more), the "heads" that are not being used clog up. This in a  
> > closed 
> > > room with a humidifier sitting right next to the printer so 
that  

> > it is 
> > > always 50% RH.  
> > >  
> > > Now, if you could keep the unused heads capped... 
> > >  
> > >  
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

>I'm not being facetious. I use the 7600 like this. I've got
seven
"heads" to work with. Using Cone's Piezotone inks, I've got two
sets of
gray inks (selenium and warm neutral in this case) which share a
common
black. When I print, I use just four "heads" at a time.
Invariably, when
I print something big that takes a fair amount of time (half and
hour or
more), the "heads" that are not being used clog up. This in a
closed
room with a humidifier sitting right next to the printer so that
it is
always 50% RH.

Now, if you could keep the unused heads capped...<

Print a small waste strip of all colours along the edge of the
print that will later be cut off. I often use one on large prints
on the 9000 when the colours are not evenly distributed in the
image. Say a lot of black starts at the end of the printrun. By
keeping the heads working before they get to the real job there
is less waste in prints. With a margin around the image it even
gets better as the waste strip can start at the edge of the print
and the heads are primed before the image starts. If more prints
are done after another on the roll the waste strip can run
through. The colour lines are about 1.5 to 2 mm wide. It is also
easy to check whether the 6 colours are printing correctly before
the image starts and while printing. Keep the waste strip at the
side of the capping station so it will print fast. I've asked
Mike of Qimage to make it into a feature but he hasn't responded
on that so far. It is however easy to add a template with the
strip. I've made similar templates in CorelDraw 9.

Next step is of course to put a small webcam in front of that
strip and keep your printer in control.

Ernst

>So now we\ufffdll have an Epson where we can stick 8 ink
cartridges,the 4000.
Wouldn\ufffdt it be possible to load 3 or 4 slots with blacks and gray
dilutions,4 or 5 with color,and by writing a proper driver (what
does not seem a great deal for those who work in this field)
having a printer capable of printing perfect BW  and color at the
same time with no more hassles? Considering that it's known that
only three shades of gray are necesssary to do the BW trick(so
said Jon Cone) and 4 colour printers were quite good  before the
six colors came to be (surely not as good,but good enough) maybe
this could the holy grail of BW and color printers...
Any thoughts?<

Andr\ufffd

Suppose it can be done with the inks already in the 4000. If both
blacks can print simultaneously and with the grey included you
may have a setup fot matte already. The gloss black is lower in
density on matte but not a true quad grey. With the 3.5 picoliter
droplet that doesn't have to be a problem. It all depends whether
the two blacks can work simultaneously. The driver could be a
modified colour one as it should work in that mode as well. In
fact I more or less expected that the 4000 would have a mode like
that already but so far there's no confirmation.

Ernst