A recent experience with carbon inks

[coisasdavida]

One year ago I was on Ali Express purchasing auto-resetting cartridges for this Epson 4900 I was given a month before with three dead colours. Soon after I picked up the printer I started searching the web for ideas on what to do with it, obviously wasting more Epson ink to unclog it wasn't one of them. Then I found a post here by user onnect17 and later Paul Roark's website, wow! I learned I could mix my own inkset. In downtown São Paulo I found an expired Epson cart for a 9500 printer, a whole 500ml of archival black ink for my first experiments. I learned how to use Google Translate to formulate questions in a russian forum about printers, eventually found the ways with the force and how to do an ink charge on the 4900. Two months later I had the first viable prints using this old ink (and I still haven't finished it). I left the printer many times for a couple weeks without use and had no problems, but one time for a month and a half and I lost two more colours, I was forced reroute one ink and to rewrite the ink descriptor file for QTR and redo the math for the crossovers to change my 6-ink set to a 5-ink set. So far I have spent around 200usd and maybe I have learned enough to do a proper conversion of a proper printer in the future.

[Ken Lee]

After a similar experience I stopped using the inks described on Paul Roark's web site.

Compared to that approach, Piezography offers the following advantages:

Custom profiles available, linearized at 128 steps for your specific printer/paper combination
No clogging (pigment particles encapsulated in acrylic copolymer to eliminate electrostatic attraction)
A variety of ink color options like selenium, neutral, warm, cool
Tools for digital negatives for traditional wet and alternate processes
Everything works from end to end: you're not piecing together a collection of untested equipment
Superior ink, carts, syringes, packaging, instructional materials
Excellent customer support with fast turnaround time
Expert advice, web forums, blog, free instructional videos
On-site workshops for in-depth hands-on training

See http://www.kennethleegallery.com/html/tech/index.php#Piezo

Apparently they will soon be providing a new generation of 100% Carbon ink (their 3rd version) with a more neutral color (less red). I have not seen any sample images but am looking forward to the new ink.

[rdeloe]

I've been happy using Paul Roark's Eboni formulations for several years now. I buy the Eboni (the matte carbon ink), mix up my own C6B base and prepare the other tones. I'm using Paul's Eboni Variable Tone approach, where the Y channel provides a light blue toner that allows you to tone the ink from carbon (on the warm side) to neutral. I've mixed up the blue toner from scratch previously. Last time I prepared the inks I bought the pre-mixed blue toner from MIS. So far it seems to be a straight replacement.

I do not experience clogs or other problems on my Epson 3880 using this ink. It's a terrific printer -- very reliable even though I sometimes go a couple weeks without using it. The only issues I've had have nothing to do with the printer or Paul's ink formulation. I was doing OK with refillable carts from a local supplier, but one of them failed and dumped a full load into the printer. What a mess that was. I just bought a new set of empty carts from Jon Cone's company and they've been terrific. They look the same as the less expensive ones, but they really are better. For example, the pony chip seats properly on Cone's carts, whereas on the ones I used before I had to tape them down to get them low enough to fit into the printer.

I have a second 3880 in storage that I bought used as a backup. It came with a bad channel that I could not unclog despite a major effort. If and when I have to press it into service, I will have to rework my profiles to ignore the bad channel. But that's easy to do with Paul's Eboni system because we only need 6 working channels for Eboni 6.

Different strokes for different folks is my thinking here. Jon Cone's Piezography system is terrific from what I've heard. For people who want a turnkey system, it's ideal. However, I'm a DIY person and like to be in control of the process as much as I can. So for me Paul Roark's inkset is perfect. It's also vastly cheaper. We're lucky to have such good choices.

[coisasdavida]

After a similar experience I stopped using the inks described on Paul Roark's web site.

I'd love to try something more elaborate and ready for use, but the cost of bringing this all the way to Brazil is still too much for me.

[coisasdavida]

It's also vastly cheaper. We're lucky to have such good choices.

This is probably the only reason I did it in the first place, otherwise it would too high investment to find out wether the printer was any good still.
I did go talk to Marcos Ribeiro here in São Paulo, he uses Cone's inks in a 11880, a complex project by the way. All his printers have been modified in some way, what I learned from this visit was that just like enlargers and developers, printers and ink are susceptible to tinkering.
Talking to him about what I had read on Roark's website made me realize I could have the same pleasure mixing an inkset as mixing my own developer, for example.

[Peter De Smidt]

I've been using monochrome inksets since about 2004. I've used Piezography, varients of Paul's inksets, and oem inks. My experience is that there can be issues, serious ones sometimes, with each of the approaches. The big pro pigment printers, in particular, must be used regularly. Pigments settle. That's simply a fact. Some inks settle much faster than others. None of the non-oem solutions have been thoroughly tested along the lines, say, that Kodak used to do with their products. I've had good support from Inkjetmall and from Paul. He doesn't make any money off of any of this, except by selling his own prints. He's gone out of his way to be helpful. If you wanted a fairly neutral carbon inkset, Piezography hasn't had an option. As Ken has said, hopefully that will soon be changing. I don't particularly like any of the Piezography toned inksets. For me, the toning is usually too strong. As a result, I use an inkset that uses Piezography HD matte ink, + Eboni v1 dilutions + Canon blue toner. So far, it's worked very well. An early version of the toner, one which used Paul's old toner formula by mistake, settled in under a week. It killed one of the channels on my printer. No one knows how this happened. I don't blame anyone. I realized the risks when I started doing this. Lately, Epson's chip readers have given me tremendous problems. I so wish that I could turn them off, as I could with my old 7600.

If you're going to not use a big pigment printer for a few weeks or more, then you need to load storage solution into it. 70% distilled water + 30% polypropylene glycol works fine. If you don't, then you're playing Russian Roulette with your printer.

[rdeloe]

Guilherme, the clogging issues can be avoided by a bit of regular attention to your printer. Once a week I try to print something -- even just a test print. I will also gently agitate the carts the night before I'm planning to do serious printing. I started out with an Epson 1430 and agitation was not necessary on that style of printer because the carts moved with the head -- so it self-agitated. On your 4990 and my 3880 the carts are fixed so they need that gentle agitation from time to time.

It's funny that you mentioned the pleasures of mixing your own inks! For quite a few years I was "done" with film and missed the hands-on nature of darkroom work; mixing my own ink and profiling the inks and papers was a tiny connection to that side of photography. Now that I've reintroduced film into my photography practice I'm very happy printing on the same printer that I set up originally for straight digital. As much as I enjoy the look of silver gelatin, I also genuinely like how carbon inks print on matte papers.

[coisasdavida]

mixing my own ink and profiling the inks and papers was a tiny connection to that side of photography

As I entered Marcos' printshop I saw a large printer with a hole on the side, tiny hoses coming out towards a set of tanks on a high shelf, I simply figured out this connection right there.

[Walter Foscari]

One more thumbs up for Paul's systems.
I've been using his K5 formulation (5 shades of black + LM and LLC) in a 7600 for over 10 years. Printed literally hundreds of 24x30, and sold quite a few.
As previously mentioned, regular use is mandatory or you'll get clogs. And this is true with ANY ink. So I did my best over the years to print something at least once every couple of week. But recently I had been busy with my color work and neglected the poor old BW 7600 for a couple of months, which resulted in some serious clogging. So I spent a weekend clearing the channels and once done I took the occasion to switch to Paul's latest system with 6Ks and a blue toner (the Ebony variable tone mentioned above). So far it looks very promising.
All you need is a decent scale to mix the inks and QTR to print. I also own a spectro so that I can make my own profiles but that's not essential. You can simply download them for the most common papers. Once you take the plunge it really isn't that hard. It will give you more creative control over your work.
It's true that MIS (inksupply) don't have much customer support, but over the years I always got my orders and never had any issue besides some occasional delays in shipping (Being in Canada doesn't help). But the products are good and their prices can't be beaten.

[rdeloe]

MIS is a weak link in the chain. They are not at all responsive. This is only a problem if you're a low volume user like I currently am. If you're filling larger carts, like a 7600, it's very economical to buy a litre of Eboni from STS (where it's called WJ1082), and the Canon Lucia carts from B&H to mix up the blue toner. The materials needed for the C6B base can be purchased locally and from camera shops.

For someone like me, the amount of ink you get starting with 1 litre of Eboni and the toner from two Canon Lucia carts is vastly more than one person can use within two years (unless you're practically printing commercially). It's more economical for me to buy the 480ml of Eboni from STS and their pre-mixed toner... but getting them to actually ship is an ordeal.

One solution would be for a few people to go in on a big batch and share it out (but there aren't many of us and we don't need it at the same time, so coordinating this is a challenge).

It's true that MIS (inksupply) don't have much customer support, but over the years I always got my orders and never had any issue besides some occasional delays in shipping (Being in Canada doesn't help). But the products are good and their prices can't be beaten.