Digital BW, The Print

On Nov 26, 2006, at 9:36 PM, Steven Karafyllakis wrote:

> [snip]
> I haven't even tried the 'Grayscale' option on the 260-that's right,
> it reads 'grayscale' which doesn't sound promising.

That's right, and too bad, but not necessarily a deal-breaker for me.


> For color, on the
> new Costco, I'm getting excellent results after profiling: nice clean
> colors that are life-like without being oversaturated.

And this is promising - for color. But I care about that too.


> HOWEVER: Epson
> has really done it this time: It's a whole new cartridge, and the
> chip has two extra contacts, so you're stuck with Epson inks for a
> while. Scuttlebut is, there's a pair of wires going into the cart,
> maybe a crude sensor of some sort. Newegg.com has the best prices on
> ink so far. My advice is, if you're looking for cheap mass quantity
> printing, pick up a refurbed 220 or 340 while you still can.

All of my printing is done in small quantities. But I'm still  
sensitive to the costs. And a little frustrated because I think ink  
costs are getting more complicated to calculate. At a glance, the  
NewEgg prices, neglecting taxes, shipping, and any rebate on returned  
empties, look to me little if any lower _if_ the NewEgg prices for  
the standard cartridges are compared to the Epson Store prices for  
the larger "High-Capacity" Claria cartridges, which I _think_ only  
the Epson Store so far has.

The number-of-pages cartridge yields, based on the new standards  
still emerging for yields, are 300 vs 480 in the case of black and  
515 vs 855 in the case of an all-colors average. I don't remember  
seeing such new-standard yields for the 200 (I have) or the 220 and  
340 printers. But I don't think the comparison matters much for those  
of us who are proofing on them or using them for black-only printing.


> Steve Karafyllakis
>
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Sam McCandless
> <samcc@...> wrote:
> [snip]

I hope Steve and others will keep the paper news coming. I'm  
interested mostly in matte papers, and of the papers Epson is  
recommending most highly for their new Claria inks, to me only the  
Premium Semigloss and the Ultra Premium Glossy look promising for my  
card-stock uses in terms of their specified weight and thickness. And  
even in their case, I'm concerned about what it's like to print or  
write on the uncoated, reverse side of the sheet - with any ink set  
since I could change printers between sides, not that I was looking  
for another complication!

Thanks again.
--
Sam