Digital BW, The Print

Ernst,

> What is the Dmax you get with both drivers ?


On EEM with Eboni installed the dmax with the Epson driver is usually about
1.60 - 1.61.  IJC produced the same initially with one of their pre-made
curves.  QTR hit 1.62.  The Epson driver set to Premium Glossy paper (PK
chip on Eboni cart) with 2880 and High Speed UN-checked hit 1.63.  With IJC
and some dark cool ink added to the Eboni I've seen 1.66 in some tests, but
I have not been able to replicate that in a curves set yet.  On the 7500
with this batch of paper 1.67 is typical (and a whole lot easier to achieve
-- I'm seriously thinking of dumping the 7600).  (These are all initial
readings that typically will increase by 0.01 overnight.)

> With Eboni and a 9000 I can't get higher than 1.7.

I should be so lucky.

With UC ink in the 7600 I could do a little better than I'm not doing with
it by having the dark cyan supplementing the UC MK.

> In general it is more the ink that is at its max than anything else.
> Reflection of the ink surface limits the Dmax, how much ink you pour on
> doesn't matter.

Yes, clearly just pouring on more ink is not the answer.

The dither pattern, speed, and other factors seem to be working here.  The
4000 appears to be even worse.  It'll be interesting to see if the newer
4800, etc. have cured the problem.  The R1800 is capable of very good dmax
from what I've seen.  I'll bet they are using some cyan and/or blue to do
it.  That might account for there not being a "BO" mode on those printers.

With the 2200, the best dmax I've been able to achieve is by having a second
Eboni in the printer and using a rip.  However, at this point the rips still
have too many problems for me to be enthusiastic about having an inkset that
can only be run by them.  On the other hand, maybe if I used a rip I could
just forward all the e-mail I'd get about printing problems to those who
wrote the code! ;-) 

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com