The Future of Cone/MIS B&W Inksets?

[Taija71A]

You, are more than welcome Ken!
Glad to be of some assistance.

[Kirk Gittings]

What about consistency of sheen between the various shades of gray/black? That's the most common complaint I hear from friends using Epson.

I don't mind it. Plus all my work is shown and sold framed under glass or acrylic-not an issue

[Ken Lee]

So Santa Fe and ABQ are the homes of many first rate digital b&w printers, just like for silver and platinum etc. Some of these are purely commercial, some are in-house for the artist and some both. Many switched to Canon a few years back for reasons commonly known and are now rethinking Epson. The new Epson's (I don't own one but use one-printed a recent show on one) can do amazing b&w, amongst other things they have a superior d-max and a tweaked ABW. It can do everything I need. I did Cone inks for awhile but was disappointed when the Ardenberg tests came out showing they were less archival than Epson or Canon. For larger prints I can't do in-house I have been working with a shop with Canons (they also have large Epson's, some with Cone inks). The archival issue gradually soured me on Cone as I try to work with the most archival materials available.

Are you referring to the newest Epson printers ? Here is an interesting comparison of Epson ABW and QTR, using an Epson 9900 (not the latest printer). See http://www.bwmastery.com/blog/2015/abw-vs-qtr .

The technology changes so quickly, it's... vexing !

[bob carnie]

I have been using a Canon IPF with the new inksets 12 in total, I love the quality that this unit will give.

[Kirk Gittings]

Are you referring to the newest Epson printers ? Here is an interesting comparison of Epson ABW and QTR, using an Epson 9900 (not the latest printer). See http://www.bwmastery.com/blog/2015/abw-vs-qtr .

The technology changes so quickly, it's... vexing !

Yes people are reevaluating the Canons based on the newest Epsons I was going to jump to Canon this year but not now.

[Ken Lee]

Is there anything online about these evaluations ?

Cost and convenience aside, it seems to me there are 2 basic issues: image permanence and image quality.

[Peter York]

I was wrong w.r.t. QTR working with the newest epson models. See https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/...s/topics/13448

The cone/mis inkset availability for these printers still troubles me.

[Ken Lee]

Roy Harrington, the author of Quadtone RIP and PrintTool, wrote this on the QTR foum:

"Print-Tool is an app and supports any of the drivers - Epson or QTR driver right now.
QTR driver seems fine so far with all new printers except P10K and P20K. No idea if they will ever work but I'll try if I can get a chance (i.e. Access to one)."

There are 4 issues: cartridges, printer drivers, image quality and image permanence. For now, as far as I can tell, the solution which gives the best options in all 4 categories is the MIS inkset. It's also more affordable and flexible. You can profile any paper you like, but on the other hand you have to make your own profiles and documentation and support for problems is spotty at best.

We all get to decide where we draw the line: What is permanent enough ? What looks good enough ? What is easy enough ? etc.

[onnect17]

I tried MIS long time ago with good results but the the Eboni got too "warm" for my taste. I'm currently diluting expired Epson Matte (happy with the results) and I can't find a cheaper solution. My cost of preparing a new set of 7 shades of 220ml is around $40 to $50.

The achilles heel of QTR (IMHO) is the interpolation methods, so I use perfect resize or qimage before loading it in QTR.

[Peter De Smidt]

Eboni on Epson Hot Press Natural is very close to neutral. In LAB the B channel, i.e. the blue/yellow axis, never gets above 3. 0 is neutral.