Lyson B&W ink

I just wanted to know if anybody has had any problems with the Lysons

Black and White inks.I really want to give one ago,but I have just

read afew reviews about clogging using 3rd party inks.

 

What are your experiences?

 

I'm quite happy with the Epson standard of Black and White,but like

most people here always want to improve the quality of my prints.

 

Also is there a real difference using Lyson or would just another

tweak in photoshop produce the same result using Epson?

 

I'm well aware of the Piezography system.But that is beyond my budget.

 

Cheers.

Haven't used lyson, but remember that they are top notch. They supply ink for the Iris Printer. That says a lot.

Several vendors have B&W ink sets. I am using MIS dye and pigment inks with good results, and I have one of their B&W inksets ready to put in my 1160.

 

Be aware that Lyson and Epson Ink don't mix, so you will need cleaning cartridges to use both. Because of issue like this, many people dedicate a printer to each ink set.

The Epson standard of Black and White? What are you talking about? Epson doesn't recognize the need for B&W at all. Ask them. HP at least makes a printer that takes a set of gray inks.

 

You can print B&W prints with color inks, if that's what you are referring to. It's similar to, but different from, printing B&W using a Lightjet onto color materials. Neither is entirely satisfactory, which is why B&W inks, and B&W photo paper continue to be made and used.

 

Of the B&W inks, there are several ways to go. You can use the MIS pigment inks, which are variable tone. You can get anything from a blue-black to sepia if you are willing to play with it long enough. You can use Cone's Piezography pigment inks, which are fixed tone inks sold in four colors. Or, you can use the Lyson quad black dye inks, again fixed tone, sold in three colors.

 

Pigment inks have the "advantage" of being at the top of the accelerated longevity testing pile. They have a projected life longer than the paper they are printed on in general. They also tend to clog (as all pigment inks do) the Epson printers, the pigment stays on top of the paper resulting in a fragile surface and restricting you to matte surface papers (glossy papers exhibit "bronzing" with pigment inks). The matte surface papers also give you low Dmax (1.65 max IIRC), so you don't get a hard true black, but rather a very dark gray. Finally, pigment inks exhibit interesting dry-down characteristics. My own Piezography prints take days to dry (the glycols in the ink carrier have very high evaporation temperatures) and thus continue to get darker for days. By darker I mean a full stop or more.

 

The Lyson dye inks (only one I've investigated), on the other hand, rank somewhat lower in the accelerated longevity tests, about equal to the paper they are printed on. The ink is homogeneous, not a suspension of particles like pigment inks - thus far fewer clogging problems. The ink sinks down into the paper and doesn't lie on the surface only, thus a more robust surface. The inks don't exhibit bronzing either, so you can use them on full glossy papers. The glossy papers let you get a huge Dmax (I've heard rumors up to 2.7) for hard blacks. I hear that they also have dry-down issues, but not nearly as severe as the pigment inks.

 

I'm using Piezography inks today. I'll probably switch to dye inks before the end of the year as there are at least two new sets of B&W dyes coming to market. But YMMV.

 

For more information, research the archives here:

 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/messages

I've just finished doing extensive testing with Lyson's Quad Black (neutral) inks in an Epson Stylus 3000 and the Lyson Small Gamut inks in an Epson Stylus Photo 1280. In both cases I achieved excellent results as far as the image quality is concerned, although I should warn you that the Quad Black inks were designed by Lyson to appear with the neutral black and grey tones under daylight (6500K). Under incadecent light there is a slight colour shift towards a coppery sepia colour. With the small gamut inks this is not a problem since they can be balanced for the viewing conditions by adjusting the curves.

 

From the clogging point of view, I had very little problem with this. Clogging only occured when the printer(s) were left unused for several weeks but never during printing sessions. I usually checked the heads at the start of a printing session and if there was a clog a single cleaning cycle usually solved the problem. And, as an aside, converting the printers over to the Lyson inks, using the cleaning cartridges supplied by Lyson, went without a problem just as Lyson's literature states.

 

Hope this helps.