Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/01/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I think matte paper is the way to go with inkjet. People with darkroom experience instinctively reach for the gloss or semigloss but somehow inkjet shines with matt. That's what I think. And I think that's become the smart fine art inkjet consensus. Its not unheard of platinum printing is on matt as well as most alterative processes. Lea, I think you got off to a bad start had you started out using some nice matte paper and all the inks instead of all those prints with just the black inkpod you'd be howling majestically instead of whining adamantly . Actually I'm not sold on the 2200 as a printer either for my black and white. Or that it could do color and black and white BOTH. Two printers might be necessary for me and I've seen on the internet many with a 2200 have 2 2200's. That's why they call them a "2200". Hopefully not meaning two to many 2200's! Ansel preached the print which was nether cold nor warm but "silver" in tonality and it sold me. But only hard core printers and the ones which agreed with that worried about that. Now all of a sudden we have this new printer, the 2200 and people who've barely been aware of that cult or condition are now honed in on any non neutral color their monotone prints might have. Personally I do lots of stuff with duotone files now. Options I'd love to have had into the wet darkroom. Cool shadows but warm highlights and so on. Pantone #48585 shadows. Tritones and quadtones. And they print like what you see on the screen. And if they don't its less of a big deal than with the "monochrome" thing. I'm going to try my greyscale printing with my 2200 on this Museo 100% cotton paper 11x17 2 bucks a sheet and if that doesn't knock me off my feet I'm going to start ordering some fancy quadtone inks for my 1200 which sits on the bench waiting to play and has never let me down in the crunch doing anything. I'd used MIS quads in there before but now like with the 2200 there are so many exciting "B&W" Inkset options. As in cold to warm. My 2200 with have plenty to do with my RGB files. I cant wait till they make in interface with wet Black and white darkroom parameters: 1. Selenium 1:8 instead of 1:31 (more purple, there would have to have some magenta in the ink mix) 2. Make that hot Selenium with continuos agataion. (a lot more purple) 3. A dash of Benzisotriazole to my Dektol please. 4. Make that B&B solution instead! 5. Ilford Varigram with Selectol soft 6. Potassium carbonate instead of sodium carbonate (will make it a tad warmer) add some Glycin and a few more minutes to that kodabromide and so on and so forth. Paper parameters developer developer additives developer tweaks, dilutions and extended times. Toners with aproriate dilutions and temperatures. The interface supposedly knows how each developer with toner acts with each paper. Drying paper prints with heat make them go colder. Gone crazy yet? That would be a real kick of course it would never happen but if it did they guy would make millions. ... make that thousands. Software which could be put together by a pre high schooler. (of the Geek school) I'd buy that! even if it cost as much as a "RIP." and not a "rip-off"! PS I stick to darkroom Ilford and there are plenty of options and a stack of prints are exactly the same size. Surprising I know this would be an issue to make me not experiment with Bruguel or Bosh paper and so on tempting as they are. But in this new world of inkjet some of these internet digital printing Gurus have turned me on to the wealth of quality papers which they say will work with the 2200. In other words pigment not dye. It's like water color or intaglio printing if you've done that. Let's not forget both wet darkroom printing and inkjet are just two of dozens of printing techniques. I say if you can't bite it Gum Print it to death! woof! Mark Rabiner Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabinergroup.com/Catagorypages/PersonalWork.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html