Digital BW, The Print

Jim,

> What would you all recommend as an affordable basic setup
>consisting of a printer, inks, papers, software, and perhaps a scanner?

I just finished my "affordable & easy" printer project.  I've been
determined to bring archival B&W to even non-technical types for as little
initial $ outlay as possible, and I think it's done.  My target has been the
genealogists and scrapbook makers who need to be able to copy, restore, and
archival old family photos, but this is a solution that is also ideal for
anyone who wants a simple, basic but very good archival printing system.
(Have you noticed how many of the people who lost their homes to fire
mentioned the loss of their old family photos as most heart-breaking.  The
valuable old ones should have been copied and given to relatives.  It's the
best insurance.)

While the Epson 1280 with MIS Ultra Tone ("UT") inks is the most flexible,
state-of-the-art combination, the Epson C82 with UT-derived inks is the
affordable, easy way to go.

With the C82 there are no RIPs or special software.  Just print the B&W
files from any application.  There are some Epson driver settings that
matter (EEM paper type, "Best Photo", ICM, No Color Adjustment, High Speed
off).  But this is about as simple as it gets.

The C82 is at the end of it's life cycle, but they are still available from
$69.  Epson probably has refurbished ones and others have new ones.  The
refurbs are as good as new and covered by a new warranty.

The C82 is made for pigmented inks, using the Epson Durabrite inks for
color.  These are as durable as (probably the same as) the Epson UltraChrome
color pigments.  For color, these are fine for archival storage and display.
They have a 70+ year display life.

The inks for B&W are from MIS (www.inksupply.com).  They are based on the
Ultra Tone inks.  This is a pigmented inkset which uses predominantly carbon
black.  For the warm C82 ink, the UT light cyan is perfect.  It goes into
all the color positions of the C82.  The black ink is MIS Eboni.

For a neutral (slight "selenium" tone), I've just finished the formula.  It
basically ads 14% blue (cyan + magenta pigments) to the UT medium gray.

MIS will pre-load these inks into cartridges and, I assume, also sell them
as bulk inks.  I expect them to load the carts ASAP.

These inks, in the UT or raw form, have been more fade resistant in my
initial fade testing than have the Epson Archival inks, which have been
rated at 200+ years of display life by Epson.  The carbon ink in the UT
inkset will probably last longer than our civilization when printed on
buffered cotton paper and stored appropriately; they are very archival from
what I can tell.

The best papers for the system are Epson Enhanced Matte for medium term,
very affordable display.  (It's acidic, so it's rated at only 110 years of
dark storage by Wilhelm.  High humidity and temperature could shorten this
significantly.  It's my main paper for general printing.)  For a cotton
paper that should be archival, Hahnemuhle PhotoRag is the most popular and
what I recommend for the C82.  It gives a dmax of 1.60, which is very
competitive for a cotton paper.  www.MediaStreet.com sells this as "Royal
Renaissance" for a reasonable price.

For the old-photo restoration folks, Epson and Canon both have good flatbed
scanners for about $50.  If you do film get a 4000 dpi Nikon or equivalent.

For basic, affordable image editing the $50 version of Picture Window seems
to be the way to go.  A trial program can be downloaded from Digital Light &
Color at http://www.dl-c.com/Temp/.  One advantage to this program is that
is can use the Photoshop image adjustment curves that are needed to control
many of the more complex, partitioned B&W inksets if you want to migrate to,
for example, the 1280 & UT inkset for large (13") paper.

Enjoy the journey.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com