Digital BW, The Print

Hello AnnMarie,

>You will have to explain a few of the acronyms for me as I am still  
>getting into the digital printing aspect of things. ABW, VFA and HPR?  
>What do they stand for?

ABW - the Advanced Black and White mode on the 2400.  It uses
primarily the three grayscale inks with small amounts of color inks
for toning.  Uses the least amount of color pigments, resulting in the
most fade resistent prints.  The numbers 2,8 refer to the horizontal
and vertical coordinates for a position marker in a graphic tone color
circle in the driver setup.  It allows us to select whatever color
tone we want.   ABW is what makes the K3 printers so popular for BW
printing.  Please see article #9 at the link below.  It has an
outline for a simple workflow for the 2400 with detailed explanations
for all the settings.  This will get you up and running right away
with topnotch results.  

VFA - Epson's Velvet Fine Art paper, a medium texture matte paper
that's gorgeous with the 2400's K3 inks.  Has the best dmax (maximum
density, blackest black) of any matte paper I've seen with K3 inks. 
My favorite paper with the 2400.

HPR - Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, widely considered one of the best matte
papers.  Less texture than VFA.  Along with VFA pretty much sets the
standard for matte paper dmax.  Has slightly better dmax than VFA with
MIS Eboni-based inks sets.  VFA has slightly better dmax with K3 ink.

For a review of about 25 matte papers please see article #5 at the
link below.

BTW, atlex.com has some of the best prices for ink and some papers. 
Also see shadesofpaper.com for a much wider paper selection and good
prices.

A brand new 2400 is a great way to start off a new year!

Regards,
Clayton


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