Digital BW, The Print

A couple days ago three 4x6 pieces of Epson Glossy photo paper (not  
the premium kind) floated to the top of my desk. I was working on a  
4000dpi scan of a TMax 400 negative (developed in TMax RS developer,  
if you care), and decided to blast out a quick print. I happened to  
have the MIS Eboni black cartridge in my Epson 2200, rather than the  
MIS Photo black that would have been appropriate for a glossy  
surface, and it hardly seemed worth changing for so little paper.

The first print was light and low contrast --- I used black only  
printing, with no changes. The image used a Gray Gamma 2.2 "color"  
space.

I then fiddled a bit with the curve in Photoshop, and printed the  
second 4x6 as black-only,  Gamma 1.8 (on the Epson printing options)  
and Contrast +10 (Epson printing options), with "Enhanced Matte" as  
the chosen paper type. The result was much stronger, but too contrasty.

Final 4x6 --- same as second, but with Contrast returned to normal  
(ie, 0).  Ah! Looked good, but the Eboni Black ink could clearly be  
seen as sitting on the surface, waiting to be damaged.  So I sprayed  
it with Krylon "Workable Fixatif".  A good, single coat that looked  
glossy-wet.  When it dried, the coating had taken on just a bit of  
the texture of the paper (which is glossy, but not completely  
plasticky-textureless) but remained glossy.   Wow! The shadows looked  
great, and it was not at all obvious that I had used the "wrong" ink.  
The color was also significantly cooler that I would have achieved  
with the same ink on Epson Enhanced Matte.

I had some 8.5x11 Epson Glossy, so:

I tried the same settings with a 21-step gray scale (the one that  
comes with Harrington's QTR), and measured the results with a  
reflection densitometer. The 0% patch (pure white) was .08, 50% was . 
63 and 100% was 2.28.

Encouraged, I tried QTR (QuadToneRip) [in QTR, "media" was set for  
Photo Quality Glossy, and the curve was 100% "UC-EEnhMatte-Cool". The  
inks were all MIS bulk 7600 Archival replacements for Epson's  
UltraChrome inks. The same XXX spray was used.  The densitometer  
readings were .08, .62 and 2.20.   And the color was... well... *cool*.

In the little I did with this, I did not see any "solarizing or  
transparency issues" that MIS suggest on their website. The  
densitometer readings are excellent --- For me, selenium toned, fine  
prints made with a top grade "real" (silver-image) photo paper  
typically show deepest black from maybe 1.90 to 2.15 or 2.2.

There are probably better sprays than Krylon Workable Fixatif  
(#41306), since it does not claim to have a UV inhibitor. It does  
claim to be "acid-free/archival-safe", though, and does not seem to  
impart any colour to the print. Unlike some of the sprays I have  
tried, it does not quickly penetrate the paper and result in  
translucent splotches.

Have anyone else mismatched the black and obtained good results?

Myron