Digital BW, The Print

"bostonphotomaker" <dnj@...> wrote:
 
> ... inkjetcarts ... They say it's from www.image-specialists.com.

As is most of MIS ink.  But IS may have more than one type of ink.

> I'm interested in replacement inks for Epson K3.

I doubt there is any replacement inkset that has equally good colors and grays that match the OEM grays.  

> I've tried the MIS ink set (along with Paul Roark's 
> recommendation for replacing the yellow with MIS-EZW Carbon).

I think the Y=Carbon was a good way to get the excess color out of ABW prints.  The MIS carbon cart was (is?) MIS C86 EZ-warm midtone -- the yellow MIS EZ C86 cart would plug straight into the 2400 Y position without even changing the chip.  When I tested this approach several years ago, the MIS cart and chip worked well in the 2400 I had.  I have not tested any 2400 carts from MIS is a long time.  

Note that I am a fan of MIS carbon, not its colors.  I use MIS color pigments for non-critical work, but they are not as lightfast as the OEM colors, and they will probably require new profiles.  What they are is inexpensive, which works for me in daily, non-critical printing.  For my personal B&W fine art, I switched to OEM color several years ago and now to 100% carbon more than a year ago.

The simple Y=MIS Carbon -- see http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/2400.pdf -- did not require the use of MIS color.  I recommended and still recommend MIS carbon, which has performed very well in my fade tests and has a warmer tone than the OEM K3 carbon, which is also too green to be used by itself for B&W.  (It could be a blend of carbon + cyan.)  If the MIS inks are bought in bulk, I'd recommend the K4 MK (Eboni) PK, LK, and LLK.  See http://www.inksupply.com/arcink_k4.cfm

For the Y=carbon K3 approach, use MIS EZ-Warm midtone (they are all the same).  See http://www.inksupply.com/utez.cfm

I think the Y=Carbon approach is still a very viable K3 B&W approach that allows one to use the ABW mode in the Epson driver.  Of course, with carbon used where the ABW driver "thinks" yellow is, the ABW controls will be shifted cooler.  

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com