Digital BW, The Print

Right now, I'm using PKN stock that was purchased some 6 months ago. I
use it at 100%, and dilute it to 32%, 10%, 3.2%, and 1%, with MIS
"clear base stock". The last two positions in a 7 slot printer are
finished off with Eboni and glop. Eboni is only used on matte papers,
or when making digital negatives (long story) for contact printing.
Glop is used on gloss papers.

Bronzing (rather metallic looking) in the mid grays is quite annoying,
unless I bring in 10% glop from 0-20% in the curve, and increase to
25% glop from 20% to 70% in the curve, beyond which I can let the glop
head back to 10%, or even down to 0%. Makes a relatively good print on
most glossy stocks, but it's duller than the paper base, which is why
I bring in some glop, even at 0%, to dull the whites to match.

I've asked MIS on the phone, more than once, about a "new base" PKN,
or a "new base" version of the "clear base stock" and always been told
that there is no such thing. So the first part of this question is, is
there really a new PKN and/or "clear base stock" to thin with, and
what's the "incantation" I have to recite to MIS to get it?

The second option is to move the whole operation over to K3, drained
from Epson 220ml carts. If I try this, I'd need to reverse engineer K3
a bit, see approximately what the dilutions of the three strengths are
(easy enough to interpolate by looking at density compared to the
densities of my 1, 3.2, 10, 32, and 100% PKN). If any of my dilutions
fall between the K3 dilutions, then just mixing different proportions
of K3 should get me to where I want to be. But some of my five (maybe
3.2 and 1%) might be lighter than the lightest K3, so there will be
need to dilute. Has anyone diluted K3 yet? Any idea what would work?
Back to MIS clear base?

OK, that's enough for one day. ;)

I sent a message offlist so that I don't clog things with long 
messages that no one wants to read. It's from a Yahoo email account, 
so you might want to check your filtered messages.

> ... is there really a new PKN 

The only real question is whether MIS is out of stock of the old ink.  All
the glossy-compatible inks will end up being "new base" -- until an even
better one comes along.

> and/or "clear base stock" to thin with,

Here the issue may be whether MIS wants to sell it, not whether it exists.
They may simply not want to sell it for a variety of reasons.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com