Inexpensive printer for carbon pigment prints?

[Will Frostmill]

I saw Ken Lee's reply in another thread pointing out that carbon inks are inexpensive and have phenomenal longevity. I was wondering if anyone has tried to use them in inexpensive dye-based printers? I need a lot more practice doing B&W printing, but I'm reluctant to shell out lots of money just to make thousands of 8x10 test prints. (I'm likewise reluctant to spend time perfecting a dye based workflow in order to have to redo my best work with a pigment based printer in a few years to combat fading.)

Will

[Ken Lee]

Did someone tell you that you will have to make thousands of 8x10 test prints ?

[Will Frostmill]

No, that was hyperbole. I do think that it's going to take quite a few to get where I'd like to be.

[Kirk Gittings]

Really? Many people here just think you push a button and presto an adequate print. I must be a really bad printer because I still do a lot of test prints.

[Jim collum]

Really? Many people here just think you push a button and presto an adequate print. I must be a really bad printer because I still do a lot of test prints.

yup.. just like a camera.. push a button, and you have art

i'd be careful of putting pigment inks in a printer designed specifically for dye inks. If it's an inexpensive printer, I don't think a lot of research & testing would have been done by the manufacturer using pigments. I do know some of the earlier dye printers would clog when using pigments.

(oh.. i'd also be careful of calling them 'carbon prints'... especially if you happen to be selling them)

[Curt]

I saw Ken Lee's reply in another thread pointing out that carbon inks are inexpensive and have phenomenal longevity. I was wondering if anyone has tried to use them in inexpensive dye-based printers? I need a lot more practice doing B&W printing, but I'm reluctant to shell out lots of money just to make thousands of 8x10 test prints. (I'm likewise reluctant to spend time perfecting a dye based workflow in order to have to redo my best work with a pigment based printer in a few years to combat fading.)

Will

Will, I'd suggest you take a workshop in Carbon Transfer Photography. A Carbon Transfer photograph is the most archival image you can make. Fading won't be an issue. Since you are on the east coast I would suggest the George Eastman House.
http://www.eastmanhouse.org/events/d...rkshop-17-2013

[Doug Howk]

You might want to check out a yahoo group that concerns digital B&W prints. As to uniqueness of carbon prints, I wonder about applicability of 3D printing. Its already being used to render landscape scenes

[Ken Lee]

No, that was hyperbole. I do think that it's going to take quite a few to get where I'd like to be.

Like you I didn't want to sink a lot of money into it initially, so I started by purchasing an Epson 1400 because Paul Roark had already make profiles for that printer. Once I was convinced, I purchased an Epson 3880 - for which no profiles were available - and made my own profile. It required the purchase of a sensitometer and learning how to use the Quadtone RIP program, for which I got invaluable help from a fellow LF forum member and from Paul Roark himself. It also required the purchase and configuration of refillable ink cartridges. See Carbon Pigment Prints for details.

If you don't care to "roll your own" you can use a turnkey solution created by Inkjet Mall (see http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/.f). Consult their site for a list of supported printers, papers etc.

Attracted to Aardenburg's test results which showed superior light-fastness of the Eboni 6 inkset over even the Inkjet Mall carbon inks, I am glad I invested the extra time required to profile my chosen printer/paper combinations because I prefer the appearance of my prints to the sample Carbon pigment images I purchased from Inkjet Mall.

I still make test prints from time to time, but not because the image looks wrong. I make them because the image looks wrong

[Jim Fitzgerald]

The nomenclature is confusing at its best. Carbon print? There are a lot of great ink sets out there I'll bet. You have gotten some good advice. If you want to make your life simple make carbon transfer prints. After a few years you will understand everything and be making "one and done prints!" :-) We all practice a lot. Good luck!

[sanking]

Relief is a possible characteristic, and a potentially interesting one, of carbon printing. But that is not what makes a carbon print unique IMO. A carbon print is unique because it is a hand crafted print that requires a fairly time consuming and laborious work flow that involves a fair amount of implicit and tacit knowledge. And each print is slightly different because it is virtually impossible to make exact duplicates.

Sandy