Digital BW, The Print

My name is Marco Fogarolo and I'm writing from Padova, Italy (sorry if my
English is not very good!!).
I'm looking for a system to print my digital B&W that give me a result
similar (or better!) to the ones I can have with the traditional darkroom (I
use Ilford Multigrade FB).
In my country the only solution I find are some labs who prints digital
photos on chemical paper (color paper) like Fuji or Durst Lamda. The results
are not bad (when the lab are set for a neutral tone and don't have a
magenta tone!!!) but my traditional print was better.
So I'm thinking to try an inkjet solution like Lyson, MIS, Piezo, ... but I
need some help and in Italy I can't find anybody who knows this systems.

1) Epson small format printer: 4 colors or 6 is better? I will need a
newest printer like 1290 or a lower model is good for this kind of works?
2) Which ink system for beginning? They work all similar or one is better
then others (I'm looking for a B&W with neutral tone). CIS are needed or I
can start without?

Thanks

Marco Fogarolo

>
>So I'm thinking to try an inkjet solution like Lyson, MIS, Piezo, ... but I
>need some help and in Italy I can't find anybody who knows this systems.

Ah, another European. If you decide to go for Piezo I would recommend 
Nij of Mwords in the UK, the URL  is:

            http://www.mwords.co.uk/


If you can get to Prague then Martin Sluka is the Piezo man on that 
side of Europe to contact, his email address is :

martinsluka@...

That will keep you busy while you read all the posts comparing Lyson, 
MIS and Piezo!

Good Luck,

Jerry.

Hi Marco,

either 4 or 6 color printers will work good for black and white prints.
The 6 color will be a tiny bit smoother in the shadows. If you need a
bigger print, the 1290 is good. Are the 1160's still available there?
They are excellent for black and white printing.

I'd get a CIS system, the Niagara from http://www.mediastreet.com and
use Paul Roark's curves. If you like the colder tones, get the VM quad
or hex inks from 
http://www.missupply.com

The piezo system costs a LOT more money, and the inks are 5 times more
than the MIS inks. Either system will give you great prints. The piezo
inks are very warm on pure white papers, and if you don't care for
warmtones, you probably wouldn't like piezo.

With the VM inks you have your choice of tone from warm to very cold, or
anything in between. You must use Paul Roark's curves (free) with the VM inks.

You could start out with cartridges to see how you like the prints
before committing to a CIS system.

Jerry

> 1) Epson small format printer: 4 colors or 6 is better? I will need a
> newest printer like 1290 or a lower model is good for this kind of works?
> 2) Which ink system for beginning? They work all similar or one is better
> then others (I'm looking for a B&W with neutral tone). CIS are needed or I
> can start without?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Marco Fogarolo
> 
> 
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