Digital BW, The Print

Hello Scott,

>I know it's not a design parameter, but how about an Eboni + Epson 
>LK + required toning 

That's pretty much where Steve is headed, but with the LK mixed to be
cooled already to desired tone on one paper.


>Now that I think of it, isn't this 2K scenario similar to what
>the QTR profiles are doing now with the 2200 curves?

Yes, it's looking that way.  The original 2K idea was to have a
smoother BO, just 2 blacks and no color inks.  It works great for
smoothness but is very warm.  The problem has been the lack of an LK
that matches Eboni's coolness and color response.  Even Eboni got warm
when diluted to LK density.  

So next we resorted to cooling the LK with colors, first trying some
already cooled LK versions (such as UT7) and then with other things
added.  This blows away the black only idea, but at least there are no
multicolor dots.  This works fine except that a color mixture that
looks good on one paper is poor on another.  So now its down to either
a custom mixture for each paper or else various toning methods using
curves.

Steve Karafyllakis is using a mixed LK and for adjusting to different
papers is blending in a second curve that pulls in color inks, but of
course that introduces color dots.  So in spite of all the effort its
coming down to variations on the same theme.

As for the 2400, the latest QTR version talks to it but there were no
2400 curves in the package, so I'm making some.  I've also noticed
that the QTR-2K-2400 prints look different than those from the 2200. 
The 2400 dots look coarser, like clumps, rather than the fine dots of
the 2200.  That also the same problem I found with the QTR-BO
attempts, the results are coarse compaed to the 2200.

I'm wondering if there's something about the dither algorithms that
QTR uses that for some reason don't work well with this machine.  They
look much better on the 2200.  I'd like to hear reports from others
who have tried both.

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm