Digital BW, The Print

I think one would classify this as a "dye" ink although the border between
dye and pigment is getting blurred and there have been advances in dye
longevity.  We once debated here, and I don't think we at all resolved the
issue, the question as to at what point does a pigment become a dye.  I'm
not a chemist but I would like to know a little bit more about this sort of
thing in lay terms.  I suspect we are likely to hear more and more of
dye/pigment hybrids in the future once the marketing issue is dealt with.
There have even been murmurings that Epson introduced a dye component to the
K3 inks.  I'm happy to have a play with the inks while we wait for longevity
tests because I think there is definitely something to the merging of the
two ink types - or in other words, I am not prepared to be prejudiced based
on "classification".

L* 9.8 (density 1.96) on HPR does look very, very nice and is a big jump
over Epson MK or MIS Eboni.  There's not much, if anything, to be gained
beyond an L* of 5 and I would trade the difference between 10 and 5 to get
the matte look of cotton paper (if only it were more scratch proof...).  The
key question of course is longevity.  I have no idea on this but don't
expect this to be as good as the K2 Ultrachromes but then it's also only the
first iteration.  We shall have to wait and see.  It would be a very good
thing if this ink shows the potential of what's to come.


> From: John Custodio <custodiojohn@...>

> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Initial Nanochrome Testing
> 
> Steve-
> 
> 1.96 Dmax for the black ink on Photo Rag sounds great.
> Is this because their black ink has dye in it to
> acheive such a high Dmax, or is this ink a pigment ink
> with some new technology that allows it to reach this
> Dmax without dye?
> 
> -John
>