Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, John Labovitz <johnl@...> wrote:
 
> It's not that difficult, assuming you're printing grayscale images through QTR. You don't even need the scale: I just dilute by half the volume (50%), then half again (25%), etc., and end up with a decent graduation of shades spread over four or six inks. I use Paul's C6b base recipe, which is easily mixed. (I dilute the Eboni K from MIS, but you could use ink from elsewhere, if you could convince them to sell it to you in small enough quantities.)

I mentioned the scale because I think I saw somewhere that when Paul makes his base, (glycol, wetting agent, anti-fungal etc,) that his recipes are percentages by weight. Maybe I'm mistaken. 

At any rate one must start off with some form of carbon black to mix in the base. And this seems like the tricky bit. A straight matte black is carbon black already in a vehicle such as the bases that are sold by MIS. So it just happens to be diluted to "full strength" of maximum carrying power of the vehicle, if that makes any sense. Now if you are further diluting that it seems that there would have to be serious compatibility twixt the original vehicle and the base used to make the various strengths of LK and LLK and LLLK, no? 

SO this appears to be where MIS and Paul's work with them pays off because they have worked out all the science stuff. I would imagine that you can't just go out and purchase 5 gallons of matte black from Lyson or American Inkjet and start making soup with some glycol, photo flo, antifungal fluid etc. (I don't even know if these companies sell what I need, just an example)

I just bristle thinking of having to work with MIS. I've been on the web looking for alternatives and in the hunt have turned up an alarming number dissatisfied MIS customers out there warning people to steer clear of them. There seems to be a sharp increase in complaints over the last 5 months or so. Better Business bureaus gives them an F. Hell, at resellerratings.com they muster up a whopping score of 1.7 out of ten. It's a shame because they have an awesome product. 

Lots of homework to do. I just got a second 9900 so my backup, Epson 7800, is quietly sitting just itching to get it on with QTR.

Peace

Clark