Digital BW, The Print

Hi all,

I'm a newbie to the forum and to digital printing. Hope you'll be patient with me. Just got 
an Epson r220 and the variable tone inkset from MIS (as described by Clayton), and I'm 
having great fun. I can't believe some of the prints I'm getting on Enhanced Matte and 
can't wait to try Moab, Hahnemule, and other papers.

I use Photo Retouche for digital capture conversion (but I don't use Toned Photos for BO) 
and Photo Kit Sharpener, which require me to be in RGB. I often forget to convert an image 
to grayscale before printing (sort of like printing an image at f/4 or with the white light on 
in the wet darkroom).

Although I like the warm tones I get with this inkset, they seem kind of "rough", with a 
noticeable dot pattern under a loupe--maybe even a little banding. I've found that 
accidentally being in RGB, meanwhile, gives me very pleasing and cool, selenium-like 
prints. Almost creamy smooth.

I can't see color dots in the latter prints, so I assume I'm still doing BO printing. Is there 
anything wrong with this? And, can you give me any tips for better warm-tone printing?

Thanks so much,

Mike

Hello Mike,

>I'm a newbie to the forum and to digital printing...Just got 
>an Epson r220 and the variable tone inkset from MIS...having great 
>fun.

Welcome to the forum and glad you're off to a good start.


>I can't see color dots in the latter prints, so I assume I'm still 
>doing BO printing...

There may be a misunderstanding here.  If you're using the MIS R2 inks
then there are no color inks, so you'll never see color dots.  R2 is a
grayscale ink set, but that doesn't mean you are doing BO printing. 
BO printing is done by checking the "Black Ink Only" box in the driver
window.  This makes the printer use only the black ink and none of the
others.  It's an entirely different way of printing.  So with your
setup you're either doing 6-ink R2 printing or BO printing.

As for the banding, it can vary from one printer to another (these are
very inexpensive printers, after all), but doing a head alignment may
help.


Regards,
Clayton


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

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones" <cj@...> wrote:
>
> Hello Mike,
> 
> >I'm a newbie to the forum and to digital printing...Just got 
> >an Epson r220 and the variable tone inkset from MIS...having great 
> >fun.
> 
> Welcome to the forum and glad you're off to a good start.
> 
> 
> >I can't see color dots in the latter prints, so I assume I'm still 
> >doing BO printing...
> 
> There may be a misunderstanding here.  If you're using the MIS R2 inks
> then there are no color inks, so you'll never see color dots.  R2 is a
> grayscale ink set, but that doesn't mean you are doing BO printing. 
> BO printing is done by checking the "Black Ink Only" box in the driver
> window.  This makes the printer use only the black ink and none of the
> others.  It's an entirely different way of printing.  So with your
> setup you're either doing 6-ink R2 printing or BO printing.
  
> Regards,
> Clayton
> 
> 
> Info on black and white digital printing at    
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm
>
A belated thanks, Clayton for your response. I think I understand things a little better now. 
If I could just ask two or so more questions.

I've refined my technique a little and I really love the warm-tone prints I get with BO and 
the variable tone inkset on EEM. In fact, I find it hard to get a cool tone no matter how 
much I adjust the sliders. But that doesn't bother me too much, because I can get a 
pleasing cool tone by printing a grayscale image with the driver's "color on" setting; that 
is, using the 6 R2 inks.

Is there anything inherently wrong with that? Am I essentially doing things the Clayton way 
on the one hand, and the Paul way on the other?

At any rate, thanks to Clatyon, Paul, and the rest you for the great public service you 
provide to new b&w inkjet printers.

Best,
Mike

Hello Mike,

>I've refined my technique a little and I really love the warm-tone 
>prints I get with BO and the variable tone inkset on EEM. 
>I find it hard to get a cool tone no matter how much I adjust the
>sliders...

Sounds like you're having a good time <g>.  It seems to me like you
may still be confusing BO and R2 printing, or maybe just the
terminology is mixed up.  

First, just for clarification: the sliders aren't used with BO.  The
only way to get cool toned BO prints is to use a cool tone paper.  BO
printing inherently has no tone control.  Switching papers is our only
recourse.  Please have a look at article #3b at the link below for an
explanation of BO for the 200/220 printers.  Also see #5 for a review
of various papers and their warm/cool ratings.  BO is a different way
of printing and is completely unrelated to R2 printing.

As for the R2 variable tone inkset with the sliders: the tone range is
limited.  It mainly allows us to adjust the tone a certain amount on
either side of the default tone the paper gives us at the zero
setting.  While not a full range system, it frees us from being locked
into a single tone without any control over it. 

Since EEM is a medium warm paper it's range will be warmish.  All you
can do is go a little cooler or warmer than what you get at the zero
setting.  If you want a cooler tone than that allows, then you must
use a cooler tone paper.  On that paper there will also be a limited
range, but the zero point will be cooler.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Clayton


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