Digital BW, The Print

I just wanted to share my experience, so far, with the 2400. I received it a few hours ago and 
after playing with settings and seeing what works for me, I am very excited and pleased with 
the output. Perhaps I am a bit naive or I am just easily impressed, but the range of tones with 
such smooth transitions with the K3 inks are amazing! Naturally, they surpass those of the 
R1800. As I stated, the settings have to be tweaked with each image. Though necessary, it's 
a pain in the butt. I now feel like I am going to have to do as much work in printing here as I 
DID do in the darkroom. However, I am getting more superior image quality here than I was 
able to in the darkroom (shhhh).

OK, I will take my giddy self and go print some more. I just wanted to share :)

AnnMarie Tornabene
www.annmarietornabene.net

Good for you AnnMarie. Are you using the Epson Driver or the  Roy Harrington QTR.
  thanks
  Frank

AnnMarie <fairy69@...> wrote:
          I just wanted to share my experience, so far, with the 2400. I received it a few hours ago and 
after playing with settings and seeing what works for me, I am very excited and pleased with 
the output. Perhaps I am a bit naive or I am just easily impressed, but the range of tones with 
such smooth transitions with the K3 inks are amazing! Naturally, they surpass those of the 
R1800. As I stated, the settings have to be tweaked with each image. Though necessary, it's 
a pain in the butt. I now feel like I am going to have to do as much work in printing here as I 
DID do in the darkroom. However, I am getting more superior image quality here than I was 
able to in the darkroom (shhhh).

OK, I will take my giddy self and go print some more. I just wanted to share :)

AnnMarie Tornabene
www.annmarietornabene.net



                         


"The luckiest dogs are those with clipped tails....they're the ones who won't be chasing their own arses."
       
---------------------------------
Never miss a thing.   Make Yahoo your homepage.

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

Congratulations, AnnMarie, and happy new year.
--
Sam


On Mon Dec 31 12:44 , 'AnnMarie' <fairy69@...> sent:

>I just wanted to share my experience, so far, with the 2400. I received it a few hours ago and 
>after playing with settings and seeing what works for me, I am very excited and pleased with 
>the output. Perhaps I am a bit naive or I am just easily impressed, but the range of tones with 
>such smooth transitions with the K3 inks are amazing! Naturally, they surpass those of the 
>R1800. As I stated, the settings have to be tweaked with each image. Though necessary, it's 
>a pain in the butt. I now feel like I am going to have to do as much work in printing here as I 
>DID do in the darkroom. However, I am getting more superior image quality here than I was 
>able to in the darkroom (shhhh).
>
>OK, I will take my giddy self and go print some more. I just wanted to share :)
>
>AnnMarie Tornabene
>www.annmarietornabene.net

Hello AnnMarie,

>I just wanted to share my experience, so far, with the 2400. I
>received it a few hours ago and after playing with settings and 
>seeing what works for me, I am very excited and pleased with 
>the output. 

Congrats on the 2400.  I'm sure you'll find it to be a great printer.


>Perhaps I am a bit naive or I am just easily impressed, but the 
>range of tones with such smooth transitions with the K3 inks are 
>amazing! 

Well, I don't think it's your imagination, it really is a fine printer
and has a good reputation for a reason.  It has changed many people's
BW printing lives <g>.


>...the settings have to be tweaked with each image. Though 
>necessary, it's a pain in the butt. 

I found that after a couple of weeks testing with different papers and
images I got it pretty well figured out and settled down into a
regular range of settings.  So give it a bit of time.  Here are some tips:

1) Try ABW settings around 2,8 and 4,8 for close to neutral tone on
VFA and HPR.  Each paper will have it's own setting for your preferred
tone.

2) The challenging part of K3 printing is how any color influence from
the ABW setting shows most easily in the midtones.  Depending on how
much midtone areas are in an image, this influence is more or less
visible.  So a high contrast image with not as much midtone dominance
will be easier to find agreeable settings.  But one with lots of
important middle zones will be more persnickity in finding a tone you
like.

3) Don't assume your ABW settings are carved in stone.  There are
minor differences in ink batches, so slight changes may be necessary
after changing carts.  For example, after changing an LC or LM cart,
an image that printed at 4,8 may have to be printed at 2,8 or 3,8. 
Also, a nearly empty cart may print differently than when it's full.
If I'm reprinting an image I haven't printed in awhile, I first make a
small test print to see if the setting needs to be adjusted.

Have fun!


Regards,
Clayton


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

Clayton,

You will have to explain a few of the acronyms for me as I am still  
getting into the digital printing aspect of things. ABW, VFA and HPR?  
What do they stand for?
>
> 1) Try ABW settings around 2,8 and 4,8 for close to neutral tone on
> VFA and HPR. Each paper will have it's own setting for your preferred
> tone.
>








AnnMarie Tornabene
www.annmarietornabene.net





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

epson driver...what is the roy harrington QTR?



On Dec 31, 2007, at 5:29 PM, Frank Jay wrote:

> Good for you AnnMarie. Are you using the Epson Driver or the Roy  
> Harrington QTR.
> thanks
> Frank
>
> AnnMarie <fairy69@nyc.rr.com> wrote:
> I just wanted to share my experience, so far, with the 2400. I  
> received it a few hours ago and
> after playing with settings and seeing what works for me, I am very  
> excited and pleased with
> the output. Perhaps I am a bit naive or I am just easily impressed,  
> but the range of tones with
> such smooth transitions with the K3 inks are amazing! Naturally,  
> they surpass those of the
> R1800. As I stated, the settings have to be tweaked with each  
> image. Though necessary, it's
> a pain in the butt. I now feel like I am going to have to do as  
> much work in printing here as I
> DID do in the darkroom. However, I am getting more superior image  
> quality here than I was
> able to in the darkroom (shhhh).
>
> OK, I will take my giddy self and go print some more. I just wanted  
> to share :)
>
> AnnMarie Tornabene
> www.annmarietornabene.net
>
> "The luckiest dogs are those with clipped tails....they're the ones  
> who won't be chasing their own arses."
>
> ---------------------------------
> Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
> 



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

Hello AnnMarie,

>You will have to explain a few of the acronyms for me as I am still  
>getting into the digital printing aspect of things. ABW, VFA and HPR?  
>What do they stand for?

ABW - the Advanced Black and White mode on the 2400.  It uses
primarily the three grayscale inks with small amounts of color inks
for toning.  Uses the least amount of color pigments, resulting in the
most fade resistent prints.  The numbers 2,8 refer to the horizontal
and vertical coordinates for a position marker in a graphic tone color
circle in the driver setup.  It allows us to select whatever color
tone we want.   ABW is what makes the K3 printers so popular for BW
printing.  Please see article #9 at the link below.  It has an
outline for a simple workflow for the 2400 with detailed explanations
for all the settings.  This will get you up and running right away
with topnotch results.  

VFA - Epson's Velvet Fine Art paper, a medium texture matte paper
that's gorgeous with the 2400's K3 inks.  Has the best dmax (maximum
density, blackest black) of any matte paper I've seen with K3 inks. 
My favorite paper with the 2400.

HPR - Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, widely considered one of the best matte
papers.  Less texture than VFA.  Along with VFA pretty much sets the
standard for matte paper dmax.  Has slightly better dmax than VFA with
MIS Eboni-based inks sets.  VFA has slightly better dmax with K3 ink.

For a review of about 25 matte papers please see article #5 at the
link below.

BTW, atlex.com has some of the best prices for ink and some papers. 
Also see shadesofpaper.com for a much wider paper selection and good
prices.

A brand new 2400 is a great way to start off a new year!

Regards,
Clayton


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

Dear Clayton -

Thank you for your links. I will print them out for reference. I just  
want to share that I am currently printing on the epson matte paper  
because it's available and, as I stated in previous posts, cheapest  
and easiest to use for the image transfers. However, I just printed a  
straight print on it with the ABW settings set for warm (because it  
reminds me of the Forte warm tone paper I used to always use) with  
the numbers 4.18. Now, this might be too much color for you and  
others but the printout is stunning and finally looks like a darkroom  
print to me. Now, I'm not saying that those numbers will be used for  
all of my matte papers because different image content requires  
different tones for me, but this worked so beautifully for his  
particular image.

I will be checking out the other matte papers. I have seen prints on  
the VFA and wasn't thrilled, but it could have been the contrasty  
images I was turned off to. I tried the Innova with the R1800 and I  
got a surface scratch the second I removed it from the printer and  
there was a shimmer on the matte surface that I went "eh" about. I do  
plan on using atlex. Their ink prices are significantly cheaper than  
Epson's. I also have shadesofpaper bookmarked and I've been told  
about lexjet papers. I will just have to research and test papers  
along the way.

So, am I the only geek that is way too excited by all this? ;)



AnnMarie Tornabene
www.annmarietornabene.net


>
>
> VFA - Epson's Velvet Fine Art paper, a medium texture matte paper
> that's gorgeous with the 2400's K3 inks. Has the best dmax (maximum
> density, blackest black) of any matte paper I've seen with K3 inks.
> My favorite paper with the 2400.
>
> HPR - Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, widely considered one of the best matte
> papers. Less texture than VFA. Along with VFA pretty much sets the
> standard for matte paper dmax. Has slightly better dmax than VFA with
> MIS Eboni-based inks sets. VFA has slightly better dmax with K3 ink.
>
> For a review of about 25 matte papers please see article #5 at the
> link below.
>
> BTW, atlex.com has some of the best prices for ink and some papers.
> Also see shadesofpaper.com for a much wider paper selection and good
> prices.
>
> A brand new 2400 is a great way to start off a new year!
>
> Regards,
> Clayton
>
> Info on black and white digital printing at
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm
>
>
> 







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

>
> So, am I the only geek that is way too excited by all this? ;)
>
>
>
> AnnMarie Tornabene
> www.annmarietornabene.net

Doesn't matter.  That's what it's all about!

James

Hello AnnMarie,

>...the printout is stunning...

That's what it's all about.  Say goodbye to the old days.

Be prepared to spend some weeks trying various papers and settings. 
After a while you'll probably settle down into your favorites.



>So, am I the only geek that is way too excited by all this? ;)

Umm, I think there's probably a few others <g>.


Regards,
Clayton


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