Digital BW, The Print

From the FWIW dept.:  I tried the Septone system on my 2200. After a couple 
hours of getting it installed properly, and then having to wait overnight for 
the ink to "settle" before getting an almost perfect nozzle check, I ran some 
test prints and they were superb. Clean, grainless, neutral color, full of fine 
detail and rich D-max. I was hooked and ordered more inks as backup. After two 
days of not using the printer, I started it up again to make some more Septone 
prints. More nozzle check nightmares! About six hours later, I got an almost 
perfect nozzle check, and subsequent gorgeous prints. A week later, it was 
nozzle-check hell again. I could not get even an "almost" perfect check print. I 
waited 24 hours and tried it again... worse! By then, the new inks had arrived, 
so I replaced all of the existing ones with the new ones, and went through the 
same nozzle check craziness again, but no amount of wait-time, no amount of 
trying every trick in the book would give me better than a very crappy nozzle 
check. Finally, I yanked all the inks and tossed them in the trash. Then I 
downloaded QTR just for the hell of it, knowing full well that a little $50 
shareware RIP was worthless with Epson Ultrachrome Inks. I was shocked by how 
wrong I was. I sent-in my $50 that night, downloaded QTRgui, and that was all I 
needed to make very good b&w prints without switching inks. The Septone prints 
look slightly better through an 8X loupe.



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