Piezography BW ICC
2007-12-15 by Tony Sleep
I used to use Cone's Piezography inks in a CIS with Epson 1160 via the Piezography PS plugin, with great results. This just worked. On suitable papers I got results that were excellent and a close match to the screen image. About 18m ago I finally ran out of the inks and had to move to the BW ICC Piezotone inks, new cartridges for the CIS, etc. I immediately found that - even following the workflow instructions carefully - I was unable to get prints that were anything like as good as with the old system. I couldn't see what I was doing wrong and eventually gave up. Recently I've had a requirement to print B&W, and have spent more time trying to get the BW ICC system working properly. This time around I am using Qimage, which I have always used for colour printing because printing from PS is a PITA. Despite being very careful in following the workflow outlined in the manual, unless I do this lower midtone contrast goes way up, shadows block, highlights are fine but upper midtones blow out to almost nothing and no contrast, and the print looks nothing like the (profiled) screen. I an finding I am having to do radical curve reshaping to the image in PS in order to get acceptable print results from the BW Hahn Photo Rag profile. I have even tried using the new BW ICC inks with the old PS plugin/driver (bad), and that gives better prints (though not right) than using Cone's BW ICC profiles via his recommended workflow. Qimage works fine for colour printing via a different printer. I'm pretty comfortable with colour managed workflows, have been using them for many years. This is not a simple gamma issue so seems unlikely to be a stupid workflow error. The curve I have to derive by trial and error and apply in PS comprises compound curves like a switchnack, which suggests to me that the Cone profile is completely screwy. It is the only way I can get a decent print though. Yes, the inks are in the correct positions ;) DMax is not quite as good with Portfolio black as it was with the now discontinued Black Black. And the 1160 Epson driver dither pattern is coarser than with the Plugin. BW ICC has so far been a big and irritating disappointment and waste of money and expensive paper. I just wondered if this matched anyone else's experience of BW ICC? -- Regards Tony Sleep http://tonysleep.co.uk