Quadtone Printing

[Lemures-Ex]

Does anyone else here use a printer with quadtone inks?

I just picked up the slightly old Epson 3000 from my work. It has a Piezotone Selenium ink set in it. After scrounging for a cheap RIP that would do a good job I discovered QuadToneRIP (http://www.quadtonerip.com/). It took some figuring out (read the guides on the website) as I have never used a RIP before, much less calibrated one, but the results are amazing. After a few hours of calibrating and fine tuning the RIP/Printer for the inkset and the paper I am using I can now make stunning B+W prints up to A2 (or 16 inches) with more dynamc range then silver gel. prints, and they look just as good from anything further then a few inches away.

So, anyone else have experience with this type of printing? Ideas or tips?

Jared

 

[Todd.Hanz]

I use the Quadtone RIP for my 2200 and 1280 with epson inks and agree it's great. I have been getting excellent prints on Epson velvet paper with deep blacks and no apparent metamarism.

Todd

 

[Lemures-Ex]

AH! There's that word again... What exactly is metamarism?

 

[kaiyen]

I'm using an Epson 1280 with the MIS Ultratone 2 inkset. Have been for 2 years now, actually. I use QTR for the actual output.

metamarism is when the laying down of color inks to produce a black and white print results in a print that takes on different colors based on viewing angle. With the 2200 at work on glossy paper, even with QTR, I get a tiny bit of it from the Epson inks. It can be quite annoying. This can be controlled via QTR on other paper surfaces, though.

allan

 

[Lemures-Ex]

nm, I googled it like a good boy 🙂

Not exactly an issue with B+W printing but it's a huge problem at my work. We can walk across the lab and watch print color change 🙂

 

[kaiyen]

It is an issue with b&w printing if you're trying to do it with color inks.

allan

 

[anselwannab]

An objects color is determined by three things. The light source, the object itself, the viewer of the object. Metamerism, in prints, is when a color seems to change under two different light sources like daylight and CWF. A black looks OK under daylight, but shifts green or brown when viewed under flourescent lights. In prints the black appears to change relative to the white paper or other objects in view.

A black that shifts depending on angle of view is probably "bronzing".

Usually you are talking about two samples that appear to the the same under one light source, but differ under another light source. The two are then said to be metameric.

The reason for this is that different light sources emit different amounts of energy at different wavelengths. When two samples are pigmented differently, the object will absorb and reflect differently at different wavelengths. You can get them to match under one light source, but when you switch light sources, you open the possibility of the reflectance and absorption differences causing the two objects to look differently.

Carbon black pigments often have a brown (red/yellow) undertone, so the addition of a bit of colored pigments makes the black more appealing, but increases the possibility of metamerism.

 

[KEH]

I have been using Piezography NK7 inks with QuadTone RIP in my 2200 for a week. The results on Enhanced Matte are excellent, and on Innova Photo Smooth Cotton simply stunning - I only had a couple of pages to sample, and must buy some more!

The NK7 inks have 7 dilutions of black. When combined with 2880 dpi printing you get virtually dotless results, even in the highlights. There is no toning ink - the tone of the print is determined by how warm or cool the tone of the paper is.

Recommended.

Cheers,
Kirk

 

[RayPA]

I have an Epson 2200, the UT7 inks, and the QuadTone RIP. It's a b&w only setup. I've been getting good results straight out of the blocks with Epson Enhanced Matte, without any "calibration."



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[stevew]

B&W Printing!

B&W Printing!

Very thing I've been researching. I thought of picking up an epson 1280 just for bw but I here there's lots of plugging problems. I've heard the epson 2400 does well with the epson pigment inks (3 blacks) so I think I will try that route.

It's hard convincing the spouse. I need one printer for bw and one for color.

 

[kaiyen]

Steve,
If you got the money for the 2200 or 2400, then that is a good route to go. From what I have seen, the latter is much better than the former with the OEM inks. I still get bronzing (now that I have my terminology correct) with the 2200 and the epson inks.

I got a 1280 and put the UT2 inks into it. For 15 months I had absolutely zero clogs of note. I literally had like 10 missed lines on nozzle checks, all of which went away with a single cleaning.

About 6 weeks ago I got my version of the clog from hell. I switched from the CFS to the spongeless carts just this morning and it seems to be okay so far. I considered going back to wet printing for a bit there...

allan

 

[stevew]

Wet printing.

Wet printing.

Years ago I made my living in photography and spent many hours in the darkroom. I enjoyed most of the time in the darkroom but not the drudgery. I really don't have space for a darkroom anymore and don't expect to in the future. I do miss the look of a selenium toned, air dried, fiber based print.

Yet I can see the potential in the digital domain. There are controls available that we did not have wet: local contrast adjustment, remove that distracting element in the pic, arrive at a print that duplicates our vision and then make multiple copies without changes.

I look forward to being able to produce bw prints that inspire me as they used to.