Digital BW, The Print

After having spent too much time and a lot of $$ trying to get a 
good monochromatic image out of my 2200, I've finally taken my first 
plunge into true digital black and white printing. Just yesterday I 
loaded my first inkset into a new 1280 purchased to dedicate to the 
process. I haven't slept since. These are beautiful prints! After 
more than 20 years perfecting my craft in the darkroom, I have to 
admit to being shaken. My wife was the first to notice the change in 
my demeanor. I heard her saying to a friend over the phone today 
that she fears "he's found that what he is best at might be becoming 
obsolete". Though she's not far off the mark, I'm actually more 
excited by the prospects than worried that my darkroom will fall by 
the wayside. However, I once again feel like a beginner and am a bit 
confused by all the choices. After reading through many posts in 
this online community, I think I'm in the right place.

I was first drawn to the process by the owner of a gallery that reps 
me who was having images printed through West Coast Imaging via the 
Cone PiezoBW process. I was blown away by the process, but avoided 
getting into it at the time due to what I had heard about the 
clogging issues. However, hearing that things were getting better I 
decided to look into it again. Reading through the Cone website 
about the newer process I decided to give it a try and ordered the 
beginner's kit only to find that the software was on backorder. Not 
being too patient, I started to look into other possibilities, which 
is when I came upon Paul Roark and MIS. I was intrigued by the lack 
of special software as well as the results viewed at Paul's place 
and, after finding that MIS was practically in my own backyard felt 
it was an omen. I called them and spoke with Bob on Monday, went to 
their facility on Tuesday morning and left with a pile of ink and 
paper. Within 1 hour of loading the inks and gaining valuable 
insight from Paul's website, I was getting prints that rivaled and 
in some cases outperformed images printed in the darkroom. I've seen 
the light… now come the questions…

After getting my MIS UT inkset, I called Inkjetmall and cancelled my 
order with them, but I can't help wondering what I am missing with 
their software and inkset. Can anyone give me an idea of any 
differences/advantages or disadvantages of either? Also, I seem to 
be getting better results so far from using the sliders for control 
as opposed to the curves I downloaded of Paul's. When I use his 
curves I tend to get extreme results in the form of too much tone 
and severe banding between certain steps of gray.  Nothing like the 
results posted in his website. Is there something I'm missing? Have 
others had this problem? 

In closing I'd like to say how much I look forward to being a part 
of this group, learning from all of you and hopefully contributing 
something. I'd also like to thank Paul, Martin, Antonis among many 
others for running this group, sharing knowledge through their 
websites, etc. 

All the Best, 

Bill Schwab
http://www.billschwab.com