How to make a dedicated 3880 BW ink jet...is it even worth it?

**GG12** · 24-Dec-2013, 05:07

Originally Posted by Lenny Eiger

Cone ink is magic. Wonderful stuff.

Lenny

Are you referring to their color ink sets or piezography? Always love the pz, but scared of clogging from infrequent use.

**sanking** · 24-Dec-2013, 08:07

Originally Posted by GG12

Are you referring to their color ink sets or piezography? Always love the pz, but scared of clogging from infrequent use.

I have a large format carriage Epson printer set up with the Cone K7 Piezography inks. The K7 inks are no more/no less prone to clogging than the Epson K3 ink set. With both types of inks you have to be aware of humidity, run a routine nozzle check from time to time and a cleaning cycle if necessary, and do other routine cleaning maintenance.

My opinion is that yes, an Epson photo printer set up with six or more gray inks will give better B&W prints (higher resolution in the higlights, and smoother tones with less grain) than when B&W prints are made with the Epson driver using AWB or with QTR. I have not compared results with Canon and HP photo printers because I am not interested in this equipment since it can not be used with QTR, which is pretty much essential to my work flow.

Sandy

**mdm** · 24-Dec-2013, 14:27

Its worth it. You can make pretty spectacular prints. I love printing with my 2880 and Piezography K7 inks, matte and glossy, selenium and carbon. Even silver or alt prints from digital negatives. I think if you are scanning 4x5 or 5x7 B&W then inkjet is the way to go for prints larger than contacts made with the original negative.

**Ron McElroy** · 25-Dec-2013, 21:13

Originally Posted by sanking

I have a large format carriage Epson printer set up with the Cone K7 Piezography inks.
Sandy

Sandy are you using this setup for digital negatives as well as prints?

**sanking** · 1-Jan-2014, 13:34

Originally Posted by Ron McElroy

Sandy are you using this setup for digital negatives as well as prints?

I use the printer with the Cone K7 Piezography ink set primarily for digital inkjet prints. The K7 ink set works fine for digital negatives but to use it you will either have to, 1) write your own QTR profile for the ink set, or 2) install a modified Methodology 3 ink set, or 3) install a K6 ink set.

The advantage of creating your own profiles with the K7 inks is that you have complete control of the profile and can modify it. The Cone digital profiles for Methodology 3 and the K6 give very good results, but the profiles can not be user modified, though you can adjust the image itself with an .acv curvd.

Sandy

**sanking** · 1-Jan-2014, 15:22

To clarify, the Cone system that allows printing both prints and digital negatives with the same ink set, via different profiles, is called Piezography 2.

It is described in his new Piezography manual.

Sandy