Ultra Tone 2 Information and Settings (12-20-03)


Ultra Tone 2 (UT2) is a pigment-based, variable-tone inkset currently for the Epson 1280 family of printers only.  It will probably run well on the 1270 and 1290, but curves and settings may be different unless the 1280 driver is used.

UT2 is compatible with both matte and glossy (also called barrier or RC) papers.  However, for matte paper, Eboni black ink should be used.  For glossy papers, Photo black ink must be used. 

The UT2 inkset uses predominantly carbon pigments.  The magenta/light magenta ink positions are pure carbon, which gives a warm print tone.  The cyan/light cyan positions are carbon pigment toned cold with blue (cyan and magenta) pigments.  

The yellow position ink is sepia.  This ink is composed of 84% UT2 light magenta, 8% MIS 7600 yellow and 8% MIS 7600 magenta.  Because there are many different sepia tones, this position is one where some users might want to mix a custom sepia tone, varying the ratios of the yellow and magenta.  It is also a position where any custom ink tone could be placed and fairly easily controlled in the inkset by using the Light and Dark Sepia curves or modifications of them.  The inkset would still be able to print neutral and carbon tones via RGB curves that essentially cut the yellow-position toner out of the mix.

The UT2 inkset was designed to give a very good B&W image by printing a grayscale file (not a color image) with essentially the default Epson driver settings.  For good matte papers, the Matte Paper  Heavyweight Media Type will give a deeper black than most others.  To select this setting when you start to print a file, go to the Properties dialog box in the printer driver.  Also, photographs are much smoother if at least a 720 dpi resolution (Print Quality) is used; I recommend 1440 dpi.  To select this, first check Custom and then push the Advanced button.  In the Advanced box, set the Print Quality to 1440.  (Other settings in that box, such as Color Controls checked, can stay at their default settings.)

With no other settings, the UT2 inkset prints just slightly warm on Epson Enhanced Paper.  Different papers often print with slightly different tones.

Print tones can be changed somewhat just be adjusting the sliders in the Advanced box of the Epson driver.  To do this, first set the Mode, above the sliders, to Vivid.  For a cooler print tone, set, for example, the Cyan slider to +6 and the Magenta slider to -5.  For a warmer print, set the Yellow slider to +25, the Magenta slider to +10, and the Cyan slider to -15.  There are many possibilities for print control with these sliders.  Large moves of the sliders might have a negative impact on print quality.

The print tones can also be changed by using Photoshop Image Adjustment Curves (which also work in the Picture Window image editor  see www.dl-c.com ).  This method of printing gives more control than the sliders.  For this approach, the grayscale file must first be changed to an RGB color image.  In Photoshop, set the RGB working space to AdobeRGB(1998).  (Edit, Color settings  I set the top setting to Photoshop 5 Defaults and then change RGB working space to AdobeRGB.)

Which curve is applied determines the mix of inks and thus the tone of the print.  The currently available curves are as follows:

UT2-EEM-Carbon-1  This is for Epson Enhance Matte (EEM) paper, but works well with many types of paper.   It prints warm, about half way to a sepia tone.  The curve essentially eliminates all the color pigments and prints with only carbon.  This gives the most lightfast print possible, because the carbon pigments are more stable than the color pigments.

UT2-EEM-Neutral-1  This curve gives a neutral/selenium tone.  It is visually similar to what can be achieved by the sliders.  However, it has several useful characteristics.  First, it cuts out the warm toner.  (This is done with the Blue curve.)  As such, less color pigments are used, making the print somewhat more lightfast than when the sliders are used.  Second, the curve gives users more control over print tones.  The Red curve (which controls the cyan/cool ink) and the Green curve (which controls the magenta/warm-carbon ink) have only 3 internal points on them.  This allows users to easily change the tones of the highlights, midtones, &/or shadows by making off-setting moves of the respective points of these 2 curves.  Third, the Neutral curve allows one to make split-tone prints by using it in one selected area and, for example, the Carbon curve in another part of the image.

There are 2 sepia curves.  One is lighter (less sepia) than the other.  For the Dark Sepia curve, the print will be smoother if the RGB file is converted to 16 bit before the curve is applied.

The Epson driver settings are different when using the RGB curves method of controlling print tone.  In the print driver Advanced box, set Media Type to Photo Paper.  Set Color Management to No Color Adjustment.  For most curves I find 1440 dpi with High Speed off gives very smooth results. 

Because the No Color Adjustment setting is used, the curves should work equally well with both Windows and Mac computers.

Enjoy.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 


