Digital BW, The Print

-There are choices out there, but tone shifts and clogging do not,
from what
I can tell, correlate with which vendor one chooses. It used to be that
Epson would insinuate that all third party inks are inferior due to
clogging
and whatnot. That may have been true in the past, but I don't think it is
today. The vendors used most frequently on this list -- MIS and Piezo --
both sell good, third-generation inks that can hold their own in
comparison
to the major OEM products.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

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As for  color tone shifts and clogging I was primarily refering to
Epson OEM inks when used with or without a rip for black and white.
Roy's QTR and other rips allow huge improvements with Ultrachrome inks
when used for monochrome but, in my experience whenever color inks are
used within a workflow there is the potential for trouble. That may be
why HP is including a total quad set within their 12 channel Z3100
printers. My comments about complaints on this list was in reference
to the endless talk over the past year about struggling to get rid of
this color cast or that color cast in this or that channel or realm of
the tonal scale. It does seem to be a real issue with a lot of people.
All pigment carts need to be shaken regularly for providing an even
consistency of the particle and the base, even K7, but that is not
because there are any color changes going on with PiezoTone now. The
color is always totally consistent across the tonal range in all
values, always. PiezoTone does far more than hold its own in reagard
to OEM inksets, it surpasses them for the purpose they were designed
to serve.

I've got to get back to work. I have 7 more prints before finishing my
280 print portfolio of 16x20's. And, by the way every singe print of
the 20 editions has the exact same neutral color and they were done
over a period of two months.

John