Digital BW, The Print

I've read basically everything I could on the subject and I'm still a bit mystified what would work best for my needs, so please help ;-)

In short, I'd like something that can do everything from printing on REALLY cheap copy paper(grad student, lots of papers to print and read) to doing fine art black and white prints.  I'm a new photographer and don't have much experience with bw print at all, so an easier system that I can work up from would likely be best.  I'm going to assume at first that a dual gloss/matte approach will be best until I find out what my "style" is, if I ever do.

I'd like to stick to one printer if possible, since, again, being a grad student, I don't have a lot of space.  A laser would be nice for the latter printing objective, but I can go without.

Thoughts drift towards an Epson 1400 given its 1.5 pL droplet size and 13" bed.  A CIS should keep ink cost down, but how well would the system work for general printing use plus fine art?  What would be a good ink set to start from?

Thanks!
Daniel

"Daniel" <daniel.heineck@...> wrote:
>
> ... I'd like something that can do everything from printing on REALLY cheap copy paper(grad student, lots of papers to print and read) to doing fine art black and white prints...

Most of the approaches listed at http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/ will print just fine on plain paper.  Eboni is a good black ink for text, etc.  Most of the mixes are also Epson driver compatible.  So, a lighter value input would print appropriately -- but in grayscale.

So, one big issue is whether you need color to print graphs or other things that will show up better with color inks used.

> ... an easier system that I can work up from would likely be best.

>  I'm going to assume at first that a dual gloss/matte approach will be best until I find out what my "style" is, if I ever do.

The UT14 inkset can do that.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

Paul--thanks for the insight.  I'll have availability to a color laser on campus for those papers that really need color, but for the most part, grayscale is just fine.  

It's good to know that Eboni works well on text and the like.  So a UT14 system would work well to start off--great!  

I guess my last question is whether it makes sense to go with replaceable cartridges or a proper CIS system.

Cheers,
Daniel

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "pr_roark" <paul.roark@...> wrote:

>
>  "Daniel" <daniel.heineck@> wrote:
> >
> > ... I'd like something that can do everything from printing on REALLY cheap copy paper(grad student, lots of papers to print and read) to doing fine art black and white prints...
> 
> Most of the approaches listed at http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/ will print just fine on plain paper.  Eboni is a good black ink for text, etc.  Most of the mixes are also Epson driver compatible.  So, a lighter value input would print appropriately -- but in grayscale.
> 
> So, one big issue is whether you need color to print graphs or other things that will show up better with color inks used.
> 
> > ... an easier system that I can work up from would likely be best.
> 
> >  I'm going to assume at first that a dual gloss/matte approach will be best until I find out what my "style" is, if I ever do.
> 
> The UT14 inkset can do that.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>

"Daniel" <daniel.heineck@...> wrote:
>
>... question is whether it makes sense to go with replaceable cartridges or a proper CIS system.

The carts would allow you to be sure the inkset is what you want.  The pre-filled MIS carts are refillable (or were the last time I saw or used any).

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com