Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "mh <mh@t...>" 
<mh@t...> wrote:
> I am not sure what you are fussing about, aren't
> the 2200 series supposed to print great B&W just with
> the regular driver? 

"Supposed to" according to whom?

Out-of-the-box black and white with the 2200 is terrible.
Even the sample black and white print Epson supplies with
the printer to show off their Enhanced Matte paper goes
from pink under fluorescent light to green under daylight
because the metamerism is so bad!

Where have you been the last few months on this group 
when we were all discussing using the IP RIP or the 
PowerRip or the Epson RIP, with the 2200, or printing with
the 2200 in Black-Only mode, or speculating about septone
inksets for the 2200 that might be announced at PMA, etc?

> I think epson assumes that that is fine for the majority
> of users (considering it is so much better than what 
> was available as a stock solution before).

That doesn't make sense.  If Epson decided that the 
majority of users don't use or need black and white
printing then why did they bother promoting it as
capable of black and white printing, shipping it with 
a gray balancer, including a test chart for the latter,
plus boxing it with sample black and white output?

On the other hand, since they apparently thought, based
on the above that there WAS some segment of the user
base who would use it for black and white, AND since
they obviously know how to make it print decently in 
black and white (because they added that capability
to their RIP) then why not give the printer that 
ability in the stock version?

If we agree that the market segment who want black and
white printing is small to begin with, then isn't the
segment that's satisfied with BAD black and white 
printing **REALLY** small?