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New beginning - Epson C88

New beginning - Epson C88

2007-01-08 by marcinemem

Hello again!

My first post stayed without any asnwer, probably I didn't make it 
right. I will try again.

I decided to take Epson C88 printer (D88 in Europe).

What do I EXACTLY need to start doing BW prints?

What do I need (from MIS) for BLACK ONLY printing? Is C88 enought good 
for BO or should I order full set of inks?

Please help! I was trying to find the answers in archive but without 
success. There is NO simplest possible guideline for a total beginners 
like me.

Marcin

Re: New beginning - Epson C88

2007-01-08 by Chris Ellis

Hello Marcin

I don't have a C88 so can only give you some general pointers.

1)  An extremely good resource for black only (BO) printing in
particular and B & W printing in general is Clayton Jones' web site: 
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

2)  For black only printing you only use black ink.  You select
something like 'black ink only' in the printer driver.  I believe the
C88 has this option.

3)  The Epson ink which was supplied with the printer can be used for
BO printing.  It will have different charateristics to MIS ink (dmax,
archival qualities, warmth, etc.).

4)  In general, MIS offer two types of black ink - Eboni for better
dmax on matte papers; and Photo Black (pk) for glossy.  For BO
printing this is all you need.

5)  Paul Roark has developed a different approach to B & W printing
for the C88 which uses four inks (one black and three grey).  You can
read about this here: 
http://home1.gte.net/res09aij/C86-EZ-UT-Readme.htm  If you choose this
approach then you need to buy four inks from MIS.  The black ink you
would use in this approach is the same as you would use for black only
printing, so the two techniques are compatible.

6)  I would suggest that you first experiment with the black ink which
came with your printer.  You can then replace it with black ink from
MIS if you like the results.  Buying bulk ink from MIS and refilling
is certainly cheaper than using OEM ink.  If you do buy from MIS you
can also consider experimenting with the four ink option as well.

Hope this helps.  Keep experimenting - it can take a while to get
results that you're satisfied with.

Chris

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "marcinemem"
<marcinemem@...> wrote:
Show quoted textHide quoted text
>
> Hello again!
> 
> My first post stayed without any asnwer, probably I didn't make it 
> right. I will try again.
> 
> I decided to take Epson C88 printer (D88 in Europe).
> 
> What do I EXACTLY need to start doing BW prints?
> 
> What do I need (from MIS) for BLACK ONLY printing? Is C88 enought good 
> for BO or should I order full set of inks?
> 
> Please help! I was trying to find the answers in archive but without 
> success. There is NO simplest possible guideline for a total beginners 
> like me.
> 
> Marcin
>

Re: New beginning - Epson C88

2007-01-08 by marcinemem

Dear Chris!

Thank you very much for your answer! It made some things simpler that 
they look :)

I have just two short additional questions:

1. Do I need to buy a cleaning cartridges or it is not necessary?

2. MIS cartridges are 'complete' so I can forget about chip reseter etc?

Marcin

Re: [Digital BW] New beginning - Epson C88

2007-01-08 by Kip Babington

I'm using the C88 for B&W now, and have used its predecessor C84, for 
about 3 years.  Chris' earlier response is correct - you can do Black 
Only printing with this machine using either the Epson black ink or the 
appropriate MIS black (for matte or glossy paper, whichever you're 
using) and selecting "Black Only" from the Epson printer driver  Or you 
can use the full MIS EZ four-ink set. 

My first experiment was with the Epson ink and BO, which gave nice 
results on Epson Enhanced Matte.  But I think I get even better results 
using the MIS EZ inks in all positions.  I'd suggest you start the same 
way I did - just use the Epson black ink and select BO in the driver.  
If the results are satisfying to you, then you're good to go with 
absolutely no fuss or bother, except for the high cost of the Epson 
ink.  You can save some money buying MIS EZ black ink in their 
cartridges, and can save even more if you get their empty cartridges 
(and a chip resetter) and refill them yourself.  (You can't refill the 
Epson brand cartridges - they are designed to make refilling impossible, 
and I don't think you can reset their chips either.)  If you REALLY get 
into it you can go with a CIS - I only have to fill the ink bottles on 
mine a couple of times a year.

An advantage of the full EZ ink set is that you can adjust the tone of 
the print from warm to neutral in 5 or 6 steps, to suit your taste and 
the paper you're printing on.  The EZ inks for the C, M and Y positions 
come in either Neutral or Warm, and depending on which ink you have in 
which position you can vary the tone quite a bit.  (Paul Roark has an 
extensive description of how this is done - I believe it's somewhere on 
the MIS site.)  Be aware that different papers may give different tones 
from the same ink, so if you are going to be using different papers for 
different purposes the flexibility of the MIS setup might be worth the 
extra effort of keeping different inks on hand.

But for starters, just try the Epson ink in black only mode, and see how 
you like it.  That may be all you need.

Cheers,
Kip


marcinemem wrote:

> Hello again!
>
> My first post stayed without any asnwer, probably I didn't make it
> right. I will try again.
>
> I decided to take Epson C88 printer (D88 in Europe).
>
> What do I EXACTLY need to start doing BW prints?
>
> What do I need (from MIS) for BLACK ONLY printing? Is C88 enought good
> for BO or should I order full set of inks?
>


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

Re: New beginning - Epson C88

2007-01-08 by marcinemem

Chris, Kip!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for help! I decided to buy new D88 plus printer (I 
didn't know that they are quite cheap!). I will also order full set of 
MIS inks. I found that Hahnemuhle papers are available without any 
problem, will Photo Rag 308g be right for this printer and give 
acceptional results?

Marcin

Re: [Digital BW] Re: New beginning - Epson C88

2007-01-08 by Kip Babington

Marcin -

I have not used Photo Rag - I print in enough quantity that I know I 
couldn't afford to use it (I just made about 1,000 8x10 prints for the 
2006 Christmas books that I gave to family members last year - an annual 
tradition for more than 20 years - so I tend to look at the less 
expensive papers.) But I've always heard good things about HPR.  Be 
aware that the C84 and C88 (not "plus") printers that I've used did NOT 
do well feeding heavy papers from a stack in the feed tray.  Don't buy a 
large quantity of the HPR until you've tried it and find that it both 
looks good and feeds well through your printer.

If you are in the US, Epson has (at least they had a month or so ago) 
refurbished C88s for $59 delivered. 

Welcome to the world of black and white digital printing.  Hope you 
enjoy it as much as I have.

Cheers,
Kip

marcinemem wrote:

> Chris, Kip!
>
> THANK YOU VERY MUCH for help! I decided to buy new D88 plus printer (I
> didn't know that they are quite cheap!). I will also order full set of
> MIS inks. I found that Hahnemuhle papers are available without any
> problem, will Photo Rag 308g be right for this printer and give
> acceptional results?
>
> Marcin
>
>
>  



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

Re: New beginning - Epson C88

2007-01-10 by marcinemem

Hello again!

I almost made a decision to take C(D)88+ but I found so many posts 
about Epson banding issue that I am little confused... Is it valid for 
C86 only or also for C88? There is a newer Epson cheap printer, R265 
but, what I found, neither its inks are compatible with R200 nor MIS 
offers them :(

Please help!

Marcin

RE: [Digital BW] Re: New beginning - Epson C88

2007-01-10 by Paul Roark

I don't see many complaints about the C86 or C88 banding if the full MIS EZ
inkset is used.  However, the printers will often (usually) band if one is
doing black only printing.  My C88 with the MIS EZ inkset is one of the very
few printers I've had that doesn't even show banding when viewed through a
loupe.

 

Paul

www.PaulRoark.com <http://www.paulroark.com/>  

 

 

  _____  
Show quoted textHide quoted text
From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
marcinemem
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 6:09 AM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] Re: New beginning - Epson C88

 

Hello again!

I almost made a decision to take C(D)88+ but I found so many posts 
about Epson banding issue that I am little confused... Is it valid for 
C86 only or also for C88? There is a newer Epson cheap printer, R265 
but, what I found, neither its inks are compatible with R200 nor MIS 
offers them :(

Please help!

Marcin

 



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

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