Digital BW, The Print

Ok, I'm finally ready to jump up into wide format realm (24"), and I've been doing some 
research and have read Paul's PDF's on 100% Carbon Pigment Printing using the Eboni-6 
inks.  So I guess these questions are directed at Paul, but feel free to chime in if you feel 
you have something to add. Here are my questions and I'll try to keep it as brief as 
possible:

•	If you were buying one of the older 24" printers to dedicate to the Eboni-6 or 
Carbon-6 inksets, what would you look at purchasing and why?

•	From what I understand if you are going to dedicate one of these large format printers 
to an inkset you pretty much have to stick with it since it is a hassle, takes a lot of time, 
and expense as far as wasted ink to switch inksets.  However, I would also like to be able 
to print with some of the other B&W inksets where you can vary the tone of the print and 
do split toning and perhaps even switch back to color inksets occasionally. SO HERE IS THE 
QUESTION, is it practical to switch insets with one of the smaller 13" or 17" desktop 
printers; if so, is one printer more ideal for this than the others???  I also understand that 
some of the desktop printers have smaller dot sizes (like 1.5 picoliters), which make them 
better suited for smaller print sizes.

I'm going to post a couple more questions about printing on the Baryta Papers.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer my questions, it is greatly appreciated!
Randy

You'll be wasting time and ink! I had bought a 2400 and tried 
switching back and forth. I finally set-up the 2400 for bw only and 
bought a 1800 for color.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Randy Rancier" 
<randy_rancier2004@...> wrote:
>
> Ok, I'm finally ready to jump up into wide format realm (24"), and 
I've been doing some 
> research and have read Paul's PDF's on 100% Carbon Pigment Printing 
using the Eboni-6 
> inks.  So I guess these questions are directed at Paul, but feel 
free to chime in if you feel 
> you have something to add. Here are my questions and I'll try to 
keep it as brief as 
> possible:
> 
> •	If you were buying one of the older 24" printers to dedicate 
to the Eboni-6 or 
> Carbon-6 inksets, what would you look at purchasing and why?
> 
> •	From what I understand if you are going to dedicate one of 
these large format printers 
> to an inkset you pretty much have to stick with it since it is a 
hassle, takes a lot of time, 
> and expense as far as wasted ink to switch inksets.  However, I 
would also like to be able 
> to print with some of the other B&W inksets where you can vary the 
tone of the print and 
> do split toning and perhaps even switch back to color inksets 
occasionally. SO HERE IS THE 
> QUESTION, is it practical to switch insets with one of the smaller 
13" or 17" desktop 
> printers; if so, is one printer more ideal for this than the 
others???  I also understand that 
> some of the desktop printers have smaller dot sizes (like 1.5 
picoliters), which make them 
> better suited for smaller print sizes.
> 
> I'm going to post a couple more questions about printing on the 
Baryta Papers.
> 
> Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer my questions, it is 
greatly appreciated!
> Randy
>

On 10 Jan 2009, at 8:59 PM, Randy Rancier wrote:

> •	If you were buying one of the older 24" printers to dedicate to  
> the Eboni-6 or
> Carbon-6 inksets, what would you look at purchasing and why?

I have an Epson 7500 that I'm very pleased with.  I bought it as a  
lightly used unit, and have had a variety of monochrome inks in it  
(Piezo, MIS Ultratone?).  I now have EB-6, with most of my output on  
Hahnemuhle Bamboo, and it's reliable and lovely.  I print using QTR  
(measured/calibrated with an i1) on a Mac, usually from TIFFs exported  
from Adobe Lightroom.

As I understand it, the 7000 is a bit too old & grainier, and the 7600  
has the metered carts and so is a bit tougher to get a quadtone system  
working.  (Although the head system on the 7600 is a bit simpler --  
one head instead of two?  A moot point now, as it's unfortunately no  
longer possible to replace the heads yourself.)  The 7500 seems "just  
right."  And given that the EB6 inkset is so cheap (relative to, say,  
Piezography), I really enjoy printing these days.

--John

Hi John.
The 7000 and 7500 are essentially the same machine. They use the same
heads and the 7000 can be used with the 7500 driver. There were
apparently some firmware changes having to do with extra cleaning
cycles etc on the 7500 but that's about it. At one time you could find
the 7500 firmware on the net and load it onto the 7000 as well if you
knew what you were doing. It's the same deal as upgrading a 9000 to a
9500 which was actually offered by Epson for a fee.

Regards
Duane


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, John Labovitz
<johnl@...> wrote:

> 
> As I understand it, the 7000 is a bit too old & grainier, 
> --John
>

On 12 Jan 2009, at 3:53 PM, dlruckus wrote:

> The 7000 and 7500 are essentially the same machine. They use the same
> heads and the 7000 can be used with the 7500 driver. There were
> apparently some firmware changes having to do with extra cleaning
> cycles etc on the 7500 but that's about it.

Oh, that's very good to know -- thanks.  It means there's that many  
more older printers out there to make into nice B&W printers!

--John