I changed the 3880 setup to be a variable tone, with an all-Canon (blue and cyan) toner (75% clear base) in the Y position. Also, due to the dip in the ABW shadows of the last setup that used the 30% and 9% Eboni as LK and LLK, I switched to 18% and 6% (which were my original recommendation for K3 printers since the 18% Eboni closely matches Epson LK in density).
Now the ABW mode Lab L is very close to gray gamma 2.2. With the toner at the current density (just a bit lower than a typical light Epson ink) the ABW mode gives limited to useful print tone control via the ABW controls.
Interestingly, a PS curve that cuts the toner out completely until about 70% black is not warmer than the ABW with its controls at the warmest setting -- which would be at what would normally be seen as the coolest setting (blue toner in yellow ink position). So, if we assume that Epson always puts some Yellow in the ABW prints, even when it's supposed to be cool, then the use of the lighter inks is offsetting the amount of toner in the setup.
I've put some curves showing the distributions of Lab L and B for the ABW in its coolest and warmest settings plus an ICC with a PS curve in it that prints 100% carbon from 0 - (approx) 70% at http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/3880-Eboni-Carbon-Variable-Tone.pdf . This will probably turn into what I call the 3880 Eboni Variable Tone inkset.
Paul
On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 9:46 AM, Roy Harrington roy@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Well, yes, dithering is different on different drivers. But Epson color vs Epson ABW is unlikely to bedifferent. I expect just ink usage differences.The one thing that is the same in all cases on the 3880 will be the weaving/interleaving. This mostlyaffects banding issues. But since its in the printer everybody gets the same algorithms.My gut feel is that once you have a decent dithering algorithm its not going to get much better.Somewhat same with weaving -- Epson is probably better than QTR driver but that's only small printers.RoyOn Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 3:04 AM, ernst.dinkla@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Roy,There is no difference in the way the dots are laid down? Different print engines though if I am not mistaken, QTR based on the Gimp-print routines versus the Epson 3880 driver that must be more recent.Met vriendelijke groet, ErnstDecember 2014 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots
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