Digital BW, The Print

hi,

I've been printing with HP DJ 9800 b&w prints, and overall been quite 
happy with the prints. Then for curiosity I tried the black cartridge 
only option in the driver, and got really good print. At first I didn't 
believe my eyes, but then I tried several pictures I've earlier printed 
with gray inks and the BO print IS quite ok. The black cart uses 
pigmented ink, has max resolution of 1200x1200 dpi and drop size is 15 
pl, which means that the dot is bigger than in Epson. I printed one 
image with my Epson C64 and while the dots are less visible in Epson, 
there's some banding, while in HP there's no banding at all.

As the HP ink is pigment, there are alternatives to papers, no need to 
use the Premium Plus any longer. I tried different papers I had at home: 
Fabriano watercolour paper (true watercolour paper, not originally for 
inkjet printing), Somerset Velvet, Epson Heavyweight Matte and different 
HP papers.  The Fabriano quite nice result. The Somerset Velvet looks 
bad, it's like having a semi-opaque film over the print. Don't know much 
  about dmax, but the blacks are not deep. The deepest blacks I got with 
HWM.

I didn't find many papers available here, Hahnemuhle Photo Rag (which is 
way too overpriced: 50 sheet 279 \ufffd ) Ilford Smooth Fine Art paper ( as 
expensive as HPR), Somerset Photo Enhanced and Epson Radiant White 
Watercolour paper. Before I buy one of these, I'd like to ask you gurus 
some opinions about these papers, like dmax, texture etc. I think the 
Epson BO prints may well be comparable with my findings with HP.

One good point with printing BO on HP is the ink consumption which is of 
course much smaller than with gray inks. I've been able to print 5-6 A3 
sized prints with one HP no. 100 cart, now watching the ink levels with 
black cart gives something like 20 prints! And the large volume HP no. 
339 is only a bit more expensive than no. 100.


TIA

-matti

Hello Matti,
>Then for curiosity I tried the black cartridge only option in 
>the driver, and got really good print. At first I didn't 
>believe my eyes, but then I tried several pictures I've earlier 
>printed with gray inks and the BO print IS quite ok. 

>One good point with printing BO on HP is the ink consumption 
>which is of course much smaller than with gray inks. I've been 
>able to print 5-6 A3 sized prints with one HP no. 100 cart, now 
>watching the ink levels with black cart gives something like 20
>prints! 

If you don't mind the grainy look, BO does offer several advantages,
lot the least of which is low cost.  I've been using BO for several
years, and last winter when I begain experimenting with full ink sets
I was shocked at the added ink consumption and cost.  I had gotten
spoiled.  There is more info about BO printing at the web site below.


>some opinions about these papers, like dmax, texture etc. 

At the link below there is also a "Great Paper Chase" article (#5)
that lists 24 different papers with their attributes, including paper
color, texture, dmax and more.

Regards,
Clayton


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

Clayton,

You may want to pick up an Epson 4000. This printer does AWESOME! BO 
printing.

In the spring I saw a show of about 100 prints that were printed BO 
on the 4000 and I was really impressed.

Scott

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones" 
<cj@c...> wrote:
> Hello Matti,
> >Then for curiosity I tried the black cartridge only option in 
> >the driver, and got really good print. At first I didn't 
> >believe my eyes, but then I tried several pictures I've earlier 
> >printed with gray inks and the BO print IS quite ok. 
> 
> >One good point with printing BO on HP is the ink consumption 
> >which is of course much smaller than with gray inks. I've been 
> >able to print 5-6 A3 sized prints with one HP no. 100 cart, now 
> >watching the ink levels with black cart gives something like 20
> >prints! 
> 
> If you don't mind the grainy look, BO does offer several advantages,
> lot the least of which is low cost.  I've been using BO for several
> years, and last winter when I begain experimenting with full ink 
sets
> I was shocked at the added ink consumption and cost.  I had gotten
> spoiled.  There is more info about BO printing at the web site 
below.
> 
> 
> >some opinions about these papers, like dmax, texture etc. 
> 
> At the link below there is also a "Great Paper Chase" article (#5)
> that lists 24 different papers with their attributes, including 
paper

> color, texture, dmax and more.
> 
> Regards,
> Clayton
> 
> 
> Info on black and white digital printing at    
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm