Digital BW, The Print

"The coatings of
standard inkjet papers are probably going to be a source of trouble in the
very long run."

Paul,

And in the short run too, as I've discovered. I opened a matte a couple of
months ago to show a couple how my images are mounted in the mattes and was
greeted by a glaring yellow border on a print made on Entrada Bright White.
I don't know which emotion I had to fight the hardest, embarrassment or
anger. I had to replace the print before I even sold it. When I calmed down
(the following week, I think), I realized that it was the brighteners and it
probably wouldn't get any worse. I also realized that what was a yellow,
flashing, 1000 watt neon sign to me, was probably invisible to them, but
that incident was the last straw that made me decide I would make no more
prints on anybody's coated paper.

Prints on watercolor papers may not have the range and tonal smoothness of
coated papers, but even with the drawbacks, they still produce much better
looking prints. Watercolor paper prints have soul, coated paper prints do
not. I'm sold on them completely. (I got the idea to use them from you, BTW,
so you are to blame!)    ;-)

I've been experimenting with some of the advice I have gotten so far and
have reduced the grainy appearance substantially. Still some more work to
do.
I made test prints on every Epson paper setting I could (some of those
recommended wouldn't allow enough resolution). The behavior differences
between these settings was quite pronounced.
I had been using the "Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte" (Printer
Settings, not ICC profile). That turned out to be a bad idea. "Watercolor
Radiant White" turned out to be the best choice. Go figure. Epson really
needs to change these settings to something that makes more sense, and is
alterable by the user. Do you know any source that gives a meaningful
explanation for these settings?

On another topic, I can't get the Install3880.command to work. It tells me
"QuadToneRIP does not support printer 3880". Any suggestions? (Yes, I have
the machine connected via USB.)


David Kachel

___________________

Artist-Photographer
Fine B&W Photographs

www.davidkachel.com
david@...

Gallery:
www.reddoorfinephotographs.com
director@...

PO Box  1893
Alpine, TX 79831
(432) 386-5787




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