B&W digital output

[miguel]

I live on an island off the North African coast and it is becoming increasingly difficult to get hold of B&W papers and chemicals on a regular basis. I have started importing paper from Germany, but shipping chemicals is either extremely expensive or, in some cases, illegal by airplane. In other words, I have started to consider using a digital printer for my B&W stuff. Since I have no access to such prints on my island, and since on a computer screen it is difficult to appreciate their quality, I'd be grateful if those of you who produce digital B&W prints could comment on your set up and degree of satisfaction. I know this is largely a subjective matter, but it would still be indicative enough -I hope- to help me make up my mind.
Thanks.

[Helen Bach]

Hi Miguel,

I'd be happy to send you a couple of samples, if you want.

I've been printing with dedicated B&W ink sets for the past six years, and I'm fairly happy with what I'm producing now. A lot depends on what you like - I like plain, untextured, glossy prints with a good density range.

PM me with your address if you want glossy and matte samples of Epson K3 prints. If you have any particular choice of paper I'll try to accommodate you - and that offer stands for anybody else here.

Best,
Helen

[Magpie]

Hi Miguel,

I've been printing with dedicated B&W ink sets for the past six years, and I'm fairly happy with what I'm producing now. A lot depends on what you like - I like plain, untextured, glossy prints with a good density range.

Hi Helen,

I would be interested in learning what B&W ink set you use, and where to get it, none of the Australian outlets know anything about them.

Regards

Brendan

PS. I use an Epson Stylus PhotoR210 at present - 6 ink tanks.

[livemoa]

Hi Helen,

I would be interested in learning what B&W ink set you use, and where to get it, none of the Australian outlets know anything about them.

Regards

Brendan

PS. I use an Epson Stylus PhotoR210 at present - 6 ink tanks.

Ask them about Epson UltraChrome K3 inks, that might help them a bit

[Helen Bach]

Hi Helen,

I would be interested in learning what B&W ink set you use, and where to get it, none of the Australian outlets know anything about them.

At the moment I use an ink set that is not very different from the one in an Epson K3 series printer - the R2400, 4800 etc, but I use it in an Epson 2200. I wouldn't recommend my system to someone starting out or to someone who didn't already have a 2200 - I'd suggest getting one of the K3 series printers, or maybe waiting until next year for the 3800. Those printers have the Epson 'ABW' (Advanced Black and White) software which is much easier to get excellent results with than the method I use. There are attractive Canon and HP printers available, but I have no direct experience of them.

Though the K3 system only uses three blacks - Black, Light Black and Light Light Black (I know, it sounds daft) - it achieves fairly good highlight tonality. Before using them I used proprietary systems with four blacks (Cone and Septone) and experimented with my own mixtures with five and six. I decided that three was enough for what I wanted. There's a tradeoff between highlight brilliance (eg K3) and highlight smoothness (eg Cone Piezography K6 and K7).

The seven slots in my B&W 2200 are occupied by the following inks, with the source in brackets:

MK - matte black (4000/4800)
PK - photo black (4800)
LK - light black (4800)
LLK - light light black (4800)
LC - light cyan (4800)
LB - light blue (R800, diluted 1+4 with MIS base)
Krystal Topkote

This means that I don't have to switch inks when going from matte to glossy paper. All the people I print for like matte paper; I like glossy. If I had more space I'd just get two printers, but I am desperately short of space in New York.

The LC and LB are there to cool down the warm-ish black inks.

I use an i-Ink CIS. It is the third CIS that I've used, and the best so far. Previously I used a Niagara II which was OK, and a Flux-1 which was not OK. The Flux-1 may be sold under other names.

The cartridges for the 4000 and 4800 series are just bags-in-boxes, containing 110 ml or 220 ml. To get the ink out you just prise off the top of the cartridge, lift out the bag and snip off the corner. For genuine Epson ink it works out at about half the cost of R2400 or 2200 cartridges.

You can get third-party ink sets. Cone and MIS seem to be very popular. I bought ink systems by mail order off both of those companies when I lived in Singapore, so shipping to Australia shouldn't be a problem.

There's a lot more that I could write, but I'll stop there for the moment.

Best,
Helen

[Greg_E]

I'll back the Inkrepublic CIS too. Of all the different designs I've used, and built, this one is the best so far. They use a design that is very similar to what Epson uses in their large format printers.