Digital BW, The Print

I meant to add that I've posted this on the Wide Format forum as well.  Some
of the comments below pertain to earlier discussions on that forum.
Nonetheless this stuff may be of interest to some here who are not members
there.


> From: Steve Kale <stevekale@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 18:44:09 -0000
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Digital BW] Initial Nanochrome Testing
> 
> Firstly can we please not turn this into another Nanoo Nanoo session?  Thanks!
> :-)
> 
> I thought I'd share some initial testing I have done with these inks while we
> wait for 
> longevity information.  The testing I've done thus far is really only around
> gamut and ink 
> densities.  Now that I have profiles up and running I'm looking forward to
> printing 
> additional, more interesting, images.  All this is very preliminary as I
> loaded up my 2100
> printer yesterday.  Rather than post a big blurb here with too many numbers, I
> have typed 
> up my results and included the ICC profiles in a folder which can be
> downloaded here:
> 
> http://homepage.mac.com/stevekale/stevekale2/FileSharing37.html
> 
> (Hopefully Gretag will recognise that it's not my intent to share the profiles
> per se but 
> rather to post them so that people can make gamut comparisons.)
> 
> A couple of brief comments.  The inks are not a pancea for all the issues
> inkjet faces 
> today.  They behave very very well on some papers and "normally" on others, as
> the results 
> I've posted show (and Shilesh has posted prior to me).  Their gamut on my 2100
> performs 
> better than my 4800 with K3 (MIS Eboni rather than Epson MK) in some areas but
> not in 
> others.  (I can't show a direct apples to apples comparison because the
> Nanochromes do 
> not have an LLK and I am not prepared to load them into my 4800 just yet.  I'd
> like to see 
> longevity tests before considering that.)  You can make your own gamut
> comparisons with 
> Colorsync Utility.  The black ink performs very well on HPR308 with a dMax of
> 1.96.  The 
> same ink achieves a dMax of 2.32 on EPSG.   (Note, you'll see I picked up the
> wrong 
> column for EPSG in the text of the pdf - I'll fix it when I can.)  Even if
> only this black ink
> performs well in longevity tests it would be an interesting consideration for
> all the x800 
> series printer owners.  We'll have to wait and see.  There are some problems
> though in 
> using an ink which very quickly hits its density peak with the Epson driver
> with its ink 
> limits and linearization calibrated for completely different inks.  I'd be
> interested in 
> feedback on this issue once people have had the chance to look at the tests
> I've done.
> 
> I look forward to any feedback on the tests I've done to date.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Steve