Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/03/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark is 1000% correct here. I am involved in a technology that has to rely on and engineer within inkjet nozzles, inks, and cartridges (they're called "pens" in the industry). Inkjet inks are V-E-R-Y sophisticated, complex, and the delivery method at the nozzle (piezo, boiling a cubic micron at a nozzle, etc.) is soooooo dependent upon the ink chemistry that phd theses and chemist's carriers have been built around ink chemistry. But, of course, it could be fun to muck up your printer ink nozzles... ;-) JB At 05:14 PM 3/16/2003 -0800, Mark Rabiner wrote: > > > > Questions: > > > > * What kind of inks could you use? > > > > * What would you dilute them with? > > > > * How do you measure the density in the output? > > > > * Am I totally bonkers? > > > >Pay the Five dollars Martin! Yes! bonkers because an ink by any other >name does not smell as sweat! > >We could say "hey! these people are just making a big deal about the >development of ink jet printing all you need to do is grab some ink and >dilute it and put it in these containers and blow some air through it... >But i think they ran into some snags along the way ... >and I'll bet they didn't start out with India Ink! > And had to burn some midnight oil figuring it out. I'd say > hundreds of >thousands of hours. >I don't think you are going to second guess years of work of the Epson >research And development section on a lazy rainy Saturday afternoon. > >The work the people put into coming up with the right inks, how to >dilute them how much and with what and it can be stored for release and >which worked with the right inkjet heads was both involved and valid. >And involved many innovations. I'm giving them a lot of credit and I'm a >darkroom guy for thirty years. > >Ink making and it's use is both a science and even an art. You can take >a course in Ink Making in art school and you can take a course in ink >making in graphic arts school.(where people learn how use large printing >presses to do commerical work) I learned this in school where i did a >lot of printing and not in the darkroom. It was with inks; Intaglio, >Engraving, Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint we had to do it all in the >program. We started out with a potato; cut it in half. And we had to use >and learn about inks in a variety of ways. One thing i remember is that >they have different viscosities. They repel each other when they have >different viscosities. But press operators dont care if they repell each >other. All they care about it getting the ink through the machine. >http://www.sbu.edu/qac/AIE/docs/what_is_a_print_kit.pdf >India inks are a pain in the ass. We avoided them for everything is my >remembrance. But I guarantee they will clog up your heads no matter how >much you dilute it and what you dilute it with. >Some photographers sign their prints with them because bugs do not find >them delicious. >I dot let the stuff in my studio/house. >I think it took them years to come up with the formula for inks which >would do what they had to do to do the inkjet thing. >When the inkjet thing hit, it hit when they pretty much came up with the >answer. >You might as well say "why don't i make my own inkjet paper it cant be >that hard all i need is some pulp and some water and..." > >We see people mix up their own paper developer and film developer and >other darkroom chemicals from scratch. I do it. >But I doubt we are going to see people mixing up their own Inkjetting >inks from scratch. Ink making is too high a technology. We'll see but my >money is on "No". >Ink making, paper making. Martin if you're head is in this space for >much longer I'd recommend taking a course in generalized print making. >http://www.polymetaal.n l/beguin/alfabet.htm > >Lets not forget "photography" is just one of many print making >processes. >My very first portfolio reflected that when i first started out. They i >got a studio and specalized. > > >Mark Rabiner >Portland, Oregon USA >http://www.rabinergroup.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html