momus1
Established
I've been BO printing w/ the 2200 and 1280's using the MIS Eboni ink in refillable cartridges for many years, and the prints are just beautiful. Lots of contrast and deep, deep blacks. I tried the UT full ink sets once from MIS and didn't like them nearly as much. The beauty of BO is that you can print a 13x19 print for basically just the price of the paper. Ink usage is very minimal. Be warned though, you will have to do a trial print every few days, and you may as well do some head cleanings at the same time. You can buy the cheap off brand color cartridges (at least you can for the 1280 and 2200) and go a long time before replacing them. I recently bought a Moab sampler pack of papers and found several good ones in the selection. Epson heavy weight matt is good for proofing, and the Epson Velvet Fine Art papers are great w/ BO prints. I also use Hawk Mountain Condor B&W paper successfully.
Recently I wondered if I was missing something printing this way, so I bought an HP 8750 printer. It makes beautiful darkroom-type prints using the grayscale method, but the Epson BO prints are sharper, and I ended up preferring them to the HP on almost every print. It was good to see it w/ my own eyes. If you frame your work properly and use 100% rag paper a BO print w/ a carbon based black ink should last centuries. And you won't have to deal w/ calibrating your monitor w/ expensive tools, buying expensive ink sets, or going crazy trying to eliminate color casts.
Recently I wondered if I was missing something printing this way, so I bought an HP 8750 printer. It makes beautiful darkroom-type prints using the grayscale method, but the Epson BO prints are sharper, and I ended up preferring them to the HP on almost every print. It was good to see it w/ my own eyes. If you frame your work properly and use 100% rag paper a BO print w/ a carbon based black ink should last centuries. And you won't have to deal w/ calibrating your monitor w/ expensive tools, buying expensive ink sets, or going crazy trying to eliminate color casts.
Last edited: