Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/10/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Daniel: I have had quite a bit of dialog with MIS the last couple of months. The UT2 workflow that I used for a several years on an Epson 1280 stopped working when I installed a new cartridge. The new cart printed significantly lighter than the old ones did. In the course of several phone calls to MIS, I asked about switching my B&W printing to my Epson R200 if I couldn't get the 1280 to work properly. They said that the R200 and R220 were now very popular printers for B&W. The 200 and 220 are approximately the same printer, with the 220 having a couple of extra features I don't care about. I got my R200 for $79 after a rebate. So the R200/220 are probably the next generation of "near-giveaway" printers, with six inks rather than four, and MIS supports them for hextone printing. I can tell you that it's been a nice, trouble-free color printer, knock on wood. I think the 1280 is better for Black Only (BO) printing, as it does 2880 dpi, and that makes a difference with BO. They both do 1440 dpi with a "fast" option (actually bi-directional vs. unidirectional) that you can uncheck, which is all you need for the grayscale inks. FYI, I now believe that the reason the new cartridge printed too light was that I bought several cartridges in mid-2004, and only just used them up this summer. The UT2 ink was supposedly reformulated in late 2004. I print a fair amount of BO, so it took me a while to use up the grayscale carts and find that there was a difference. The way I print must have put some important tonal transitions on the "cusp" of some curve crossovers. Or some such thing. The problem is solved now, in that the "EZ" method of printing a grayscale file using the "slider" method of tone control works perfectly. For some reason, the Roark curves I was using before don't work quite right any more. They are a little too light, but I now have figured out a gamma adjustment that gets them in the ballpark again. I'll reserve final judgment until I use another cartridge or two, but the "EZ" method using the sliders all set to zero gives me beautiful results. So I won't argue with success. --Peter Daniel wrote: >> My next to the last C86 broke down (parts worn out, says Epson, won't budge). >> So I broke out the last C86 I had under the table. It will probably last about a year. >> But then ... I will definitely need a replacement. I love the prints I get from it. Any pointers for b/w printers that use carbon based pigment inks. I don't think I want to go the RIP route, but I might have to.