Digital BW, The Print

Appreciate the welcoming!

I use an Epson 2200 and have yet to achieve true black. I have tried lots of 
different routines and can't get rid of sometimes bold, sometimes subtle 
color casts. I use a Color Vision Spyder to calibrate my monitor, and 
everyone in my workflow have that profile in place. I have tried numerous 
suggestions to no avail.

I haven't read the archives as yet, so for now, I will keep my questions to 
a minimum. But, am I wasting my time by not changing out all my color inks 
for blacks? I bought the 2200 as a result of Epson's claims to provide 
beautiful color or black and white prints. It makes me a little nervous to 
commit my printer to one medium only.


Take care,
Gregory david Stempel
www.fireframeimaging.com
www.soundexposure.org

Hi Greg,

>I use an Epson 2200 and have yet to achieve true black. I have tried 
>lots of different routines and can't get rid of sometimes bold, 
>sometimes subtle color casts. 
>...am I wasting my time by not changing out all my color inks for 
>blacks? I bought the 2200 as a result of Epson's claims to provide 
>beautiful color or black and white prints. It makes me a little
>nervous to commit my printer to one medium only.

The 2200 is a fine machine but never was able to produce good BW on
it's own.  With the UC inks you'll need a RIP to control it
properly for BW.  So you _can_ do it with the color inks, but with
outside help.  If you switched to grayscale inks, the MIS UT7 set can
be used with the Epson driver for a limited range of control, or with
a RIP for complete control.  It can also be used with other grayscale
inks (with a RIP).  So there are a lot of choices for that printer,
but all require a modified approach of some sort.

The newer 2400 is a whole different animal, with improved inks and
driver software.  It's Advanced Black and White (ABW) mode is like a
simple built in RIP which blends the inks to make really good BW
tones.  Some people use a RIP with it for even greater control, but it
does a fine job out of the box and is the first Epson printer that
really lives up the the good BW hype.

Regards,
Clayton


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

Hi Greg,
I use the 2100, which is the same as the 2200 (except for the spelling), and recommend you try QuadTone Rip which can be used with Ultrachrome inks to make good, neutral, BW prints. I'm happy with the results I'm getting.

It's free to download and registration is cheap.

Richard
--
http://smallfield.vze.com
http://photos.smallfield.vze.com (Photos web site)
http://warkworth.vze.com/ (Warkworth photo essay)
http://picasaweb.google.com/rsmallfield/ (Recent work) 

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

>I use an Epson 2200 and have yet to achieve true black. ...

> am I wasting my time by not changing out all my color inks 
> for blacks? ...

Yes.

With QTR you can do good B&W, but the LK as the lightest gray ink will show
dots on close inspection.  UT7 was the B&W "variable tone" inkset I
originally mixed for the 2200.  See
http://paulroark.com/BW-Info/UT-2200-Readme.htm  The UT-3D inkset is the
latest (last) blended B&W inkset I've designed that works on the 2200.  See
http://paulroark.com/BW-Info/UT-3D_Readme.pdf  Now I'm using a non-blended
approach that I've outlined at http://paulroark.com/BW-Info/4K+.pdf 

The 2200 is a capable and flexible platform. 

Good luck.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

I use a 2200 Epson with the ultrachrome inks. I also use Imageprint. I get 
really wonderful B&W prints and really good color prints.   My B&W prints are 
absolutely neutral and I get a really good black. If I want to tone a print I 
simply move a dot in the tint picker in Imageprint and I can get prints from 
cold blue green to warm brown. I hope that this is a help to you. Steve



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