Digital BW, The Print

Hello Mike,

>...the message I am getting...is that the new K3 printers are 
>capable of producing excellent B&W prints,

Here's a bit of perspective on that, FWIW.  I had a 2200 (and an 870
before that) and for over 4+ years tried numerous variations of MIS
inks, including UT7, custom formulas, with and without QTR and
different curves approaches, and in spite of seemingly endless
tinkering was never fully satisfied and kept going back to good old
Eboni BO.  Finally the K3 printers arrived.  The 2400/K3/ABW, for my
eyes, produces far better prints than anything I was able to get
previously, and with ease of use and lack of printer/workflow hassles.
 For me, K3 blew the doors off the barn and opened up a whole new
world that had been out of reach before.

 
>...while still retaining their ablity to print color. Most of what I 
>do is B&W, but I do get requests for color and actually have a 
>backlog of quit a few color prints to make, and no good color
>printer. If the 2400 or 3800 can do both. possibly with a RIP and a
>swaping out the Y position for better B&W, that would be very 
>appealing. In that case I would rather get one 17in printer (3800) 
>and have the ability to print larger,  instead of 2 dedicated 13in 
>printers. I can wait a month or so at the most, and the 2200 isn't 
>going anywhere, so I have some time.

Something else to consider - with the 2400 you would always have the
option to use other inks and drive it with a RIP (R2, K7, whatever). 
That may or may not be possible with the 3800.  I have heard that the
3800 carts may have a different kind of chip and the cart may be wired
in some way to the chip so as to provide a more accurate ink guage. 
That could mean that alternative carts may be a long time in coming,
if at all.  Epson keeps trying to subvert the 3rd party market and
they may succeed someday.  The 3800 is an unknown quantity at this
point.  It's probably safe to say that you would be locked into using
Epson inks for some period of time.

Regards,
Clayton


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