Digital BW, The Print

After an evening playing around with QTR, an Epson 2100 loaded with an MIS CFS with 
their UC inks but with Eboni in the K position (rather than their universal black which is the 
standard with this CFS), and Epson Premium Semi-gloss, I thought I would share some 
observations.

The first is that one can use Eboni ink well on EPSG.  The use of the UC light black melds 
the eboni to the paper.  With QTR one has amazing control over the individual inks.  I was 
only focused on a warm cure for now but managed to find a combination that provided a 
respectable dMax of 2.07.  

Eboni responds particularly to both Lyson Print Guard and Renaissance Wax.  Out of the 
printer dMax was in the order of 1.49 and the 90-100 steps had a dull look.  Also often 
the 95 step would have a higher density than the 100 (unlinearised).  A couple of coats of 
Print Guard and dMax climbs to circa 1.95.  Bring on the Wax.  The strips (and images) all 
held up to a solid buffing.  By this time the relationship between the steps had settled to a 
more expected pattern and the 90-100 steps had a great finish (ie a step seemed to 
respond differently to the spray and wax depending on how much eboni was in the mix).  
Final dMax circa 2.07.

I found the best thing to do re the spraying was to apply it reasonably heavily but not too 
much and then quickly dry it with a hair dryer.

At this stage I had only tried lifting the QTR K Limit to 85, with LK at 90, and a 
Gray_Overlap of 10 (no Boost).  I will keep fiddling with these.  (The use of the overlap may 
allow me to take K higher.)  I will also take a look at a cool curve.

Some conclusions:

QTR is a must try for those on a Mac and I guess soon all those on a PC.  It takes some 
learning and but is very very versatile.

If you can only have one 2100/2200 and need to do both B&W and colour, an MIS UC CFS 
but with Eboni in the K position is a wonderfully versatile combo if you have QTR.

Steve

If anyone is interested (I am not sure how many people out there are using
an MIS CFS-2200-UC) I now have cool and warm curves for use on Epson
Semi-gloss in conjunction with Lyson Print Guard and Renaissance Wax.
Contact me off list if you want them.

The combination of Eboni (bound in with the UCs) and Print Guard and
Renaissance Wax is quite amazing.  Here are the pre and post spray/wax L
values for my cool and warm curves.  Notice the massive shift in the 90-100
range, particularly the 100 step.  For this reason I altered the curves from
the initial ones I had done to reduce the use of Eboni overall, instead
using QTR¹s boost function to punch it in to the upper range (and a higher
overlap of LK/LC/LM).

Cool

85  17.2    17.2
90  12.8    12.9
95  10.7    9.3
100 17.5    7.7

Warm

80  27.9    27.5
85  23.3    22.0
90  19.5    16.6
95  16.8    10.9   
100 20.1    7.6

The wax is a massive influence here.  If I recall correctly the L value for
the 100 step in the warm curve immediately spraying but pre wax was 15.4.
The wax also has the advantage of improving the look of the sprayed image.
It seems to even out the bumps so to speak.  It also has a huge affect on
the look of the 100 step ie on Eboni.  Unsprayed the high Eboni patches look
dull.  Spraying improves this somewhat but the real kicker comes with the
wax.  After that the 100 patch is a strong black with a look similar (in
reflectance I guess) its neighbours.   I have been applying the wax
immediately after spraying with a quick blast of the hair dryer in between.
After the spray and wax combo readings of the 21 steps are stable.




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

The figures below were pre Linearization.

From: Steve Kale <stevekale@btinternet.com>
Reply-To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 21:37:18 +0100
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] QTR, Eboni, MIS UCs and Epson Semi-Gloss - Some
Observations

If anyone is interested (I am not sure how many people out there are using
an MIS CFS-2200-UC) I now have cool and warm curves for use on Epson
Semi-gloss in conjunction with Lyson Print Guard and Renaissance Wax.
Contact me off list if you want them.

The combination of Eboni (bound in with the UCs) and Print Guard and
Renaissance Wax is quite amazing.  Here are the pre and post spray/wax L
values for my cool and warm curves.  Notice the massive shift in the 90-100
range, particularly the 100 step.  For this reason I altered the curves from
the initial ones I had done to reduce the use of Eboni overall, instead
using QTR¹s boost function to punch it in to the upper range (and a higher
overlap of LK/LC/LM).

Cool

85  17.2    17.2
90  12.8    12.9
95  10.7    9.3
100 17.5    7.7

Warm

80  27.9    27.5
85  23.3    22.0
90  19.5    16.6
95  16.8    10.9   
100 20.1    7.6

The wax is a massive influence here.  If I recall correctly the L value for
the 100 step in the warm curve immediately spraying but pre wax was 15.4.
The wax also has the advantage of improving the look of the sprayed image.
It seems to even out the bumps so to speak.  It also has a huge affect on
the look of the 100 step ie on Eboni.  Unsprayed the high Eboni patches look
dull.  Spraying improves this somewhat but the real kicker comes with the
wax.  After that the 100 patch is a strong black with a look similar (in
reflectance I guess) its neighbours.   I have been applying the wax
immediately after spraying with a quick blast of the hair dryer in between.
After the spray and wax combo readings of the 21 steps are stable.






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