Digital BW, The Print

Hey Everyone;

Following the thread about substituting the MIS VM black with the Epson
OEM black I decided to give it a try.

I'm printing on a 1280 and I ran a few prints on LPM & EAM. Comparing
the same exact file printed with the full MIS VM inkset.

The blacks on prints with the Epson OEM black ink are MUCH better and
true. The blacks with the pigment inks have always looked a bit
transparent to me. 

About print viewing lighting:

One thing I have noticed since I started making prints with pigment
inks. They tend to look better under diffused lighting <indirect window
light>  than under  Spot / track lights or a desk lamp. To me, this is
the exact opposite of every other type of photographic prints I have
ever made < b&w silver prints, C-prints, Ciba prints>.  Traditional
photographic prints always look more brilliant under gallery type spot
lighting. I think the weakness / transparency of the blacks in the
pigment prints is the culprit. Using the Epson OEM black seems to solve
this problem... but as debated on here... how stable is that black ink?

-Jeff