Digital BW, The Print

Hi,
I read this on the MIS site:

'Some of the newer printers like the Epson 2200 may be able to spread two inks, black and light black, across the full black to white range without dots. It is being worked on now by a few of the digital B&W experts.'

I am unaware of a way of printing with only black and light black.

Has anyone done this?

thanks,
Richard
--
Portraiture and Location Photography
http://smallfield.vze.com
http://photos.smallfield.vze.com

  "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem 
  to have." 
  --Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Use a RIP (QTR or IJC/OPM).  The "warm" and "carbon" profiles in use  
with both of these RIPs for the UC printers use only the black and  
light black inks.

On Jul 8, 2005, at 10:23 AM, Richard Smallfield wrote:

> Hi,
> I read this on the MIS site:
>
> 'Some of the newer printers like the Epson 2200 may be able to  
> spread two inks, black and light black, across the full black to  
> white range without dots. It is being worked on now by a few of the  
> digital B&W experts.'
>
> I am unaware of a way of printing with only black and light black.
>
> Has anyone done this?
>
> thanks,
> Richard
> --
> Portraiture and Location Photography
> http://smallfield.vze.com
> http://photos.smallfield.vze.com
>
>   "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem
>   to have."
>   --Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)



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

At 02:52 AM Saturday 7/9/2005, you wrote:
>Use a RIP (QTR or IJC/OPM).  The "warm" and "carbon" profiles in use  
>with both of these RIPs for the UC printers use only the black and  
>light black inks.

Thanks for that ... I can't find a carbon profile in QTR 2.2.4, however.

Richard

--
Portraiture and Location Photography
http://smallfield.vze.com
http://photos.smallfield.vze.com

   "What is conservativism?  Is it not the aherence to the old 
   and tried against the new and untried?"
   --Abraham Lincoln

Warm and carbon are the same.

On Jul 8, 2005, at 11:28 AM, Richard Smallfield wrote:

> At 02:52 AM Saturday 7/9/2005, you wrote:
>
>> Use a RIP (QTR or IJC/OPM).  The "warm" and "carbon" profiles in use
>> with both of these RIPs for the UC printers use only the black and
>> light black inks.
>>
>
> Thanks for that ... I can't find a carbon profile in QTR 2.2.4,  
> however.
>
> Richard
>
> --
> Portraiture and Location Photography
> http://smallfield.vze.com
> http://photos.smallfield.vze.com
>
>    "What is conservativism?  Is it not the aherence to the old
>    and tried against the new and untried?"
>    --Abraham Lincoln
>

Hello Richard,

>'Some of the newer printers like the Epson 2200 may be able to 
>spread two inks, black and light black, across the full black 
>to white range without dots. It is being worked on now by a few 
>of the digital B&W experts.'

Carl Schofield and Steve Karafyllakis (maybe others) have been
experimenting with this, and I've done a tiny bit based on Steve's
results, and am getting ready to try some new things soon.

The 2K approach has proved itself as far as producing a smooth result.
 One of the benefits is it preserves much of the luminance of a BO
print.

The problem is tone color, caused by LK being much warmer than MK
(even moreso when using Eboni).  So the MK-LK prints are very warm and
need to be cooled off.  Various cooler mixtures for LK have been tried
with good success, the prints look great.  The problem is that a blend
that looks good on one paper doesn't look good on another, so it's
very limiting.  I'm convinced that the ultimate 2K solution will be
with an LK that is a diluted MK, without any colors added at all. 
Problem is that nobody (that I know of) has successfully found a way
to do this.  There are some ideas floating about which I hope to try
soon.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones"
<cj@c...> wrote:
 
> The problem is tone color, caused by LK being much warmer than MK
> (even moreso when using Eboni).  So the MK-LK prints are very warm and
> need to be cooled off.  Various cooler mixtures for LK have been tried
> with good success, the prints look great.  The problem is that a blend
> that looks good on one paper doesn't look good on another, so it's
> very limiting.  I'm convinced that the ultimate 2K solution will be
> with an LK that is a diluted MK, without any colors added at all. 
> Problem is that nobody (that I know of) has successfully found a way
> to do this.  There are some ideas floating about which I hope to try
> soon.

I thought Eboni didn't like to be diluted. 

This aside, what are you doing that is different than just diluting MK
with something like MIS "clear base" and loading it into a cart for
the LK position?

I'm currently loading one postion with full strength Eboni, one with
full strength PKN, 4 with different dilutions of PKN, and one with
glop. The results are quite interesting...

Hello Koloshor,

>>Problem is that nobody (that I know of) has successfully found a 
>>way to do this.  

> I thought Eboni didn't like to be diluted. 

That's what I've been told and is what I was referring to in the above
sentence.


>This aside, what are you doing that is different than just diluting 
>MK with something like MIS "clear base" and loading it into a cart 
>for the LK position?

I have several ideas to try, none of which may be successful, but you
never know until you try.  

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm