Monochrome printing (NOT pure B&W)

[marc_schmidtmayer]

Hi, finally I would like to print my pictures at home. Until now I did

not 'follow' all the discussions regarding the printer-market. So, now I hope

you will help me on my way to a good purchase.

 

Well, 99% of my work is monochrome (toned) but not pure B&W.

Does this (need to) 'influence' my purchase ? I mean for example, are all the

black cartridges also 'used' when printing not completely in B&W ?

 

So, the printer I'm looking for should : 1. perform (very) well when printing

toned prints and 2. use inks that will guarantee archival quality.

 

I do not know if I will by a A4 or A3-printer, so would you be so kind to

advice me some models (A4 & A3) which should be 'candidate' (and tell me why

if possible) ?

 

What I can see while reading the posts here, is that most are in favor of

Epson. Is there a special reason for this ?

 

Good advice of you will help me a lot (in time and in preventing a 'bad buy'),

Thanks,

Marc.

[hakon_soreide]

Monochrome printing would still use a lot of black ink.<p>

One of the reasons many people recommend and use Epson is because they were the first to make truly archival pigment-based inkjet printers for the consumer market. They have therefore the longest time in that segment of the market and perhaps also the most years of R&D.<p>

Today there are competitors to the Epsons that also provide archival pigment-based inks, so they might also be worth considering.<p>

One important thing to consider before buying, though, is how much you expect to print. As a rule of thumb, the smaller the printer, the higher the cost of expendables, that is, ink cartridges, so for certain print volumes, a bigger printer will have a lower total cost. The difference between the Epson P2400 and 3800 for instance means that even relatively low volumes of prints will make the larger printer the most cost-effective option.<p>

Epson's latest generations of Ultrachrome printers do make excellent black and white and monochrome toned prints, with good user controls in the printer software.<p>

Another Epson advantage is that the dominance of the brand on the mass market means that custom profiles for third-party papers often become available faster for the Epsons than for other printers, and sometimes, the only profiles you can find is for the Epsons.

[marc_schmidtmayer]

Thanks Hakon for your explanation. Quite useful.

 

Can anyone please advice me some models (A4 & A3) which should be 'candidate' for purchase and which perform (very) well when printing toned prints and use inks that will guarantee archival quality ?

 

Thanks.

[michel_moreaux2]

IMHO, one of the advantage of Epson printers is also their so-called "Advanced Black and White" driver (ABW). This is purely a genuine B/W printer driver that manages more or less linearization process for printing in B/W (curve awaited L* vs L* measured on prints is quite linear). Some people have criticized this mode but measurements done by Giorgio Trucco in an article at Digital Outback Photo really proved that the ABW "mode" is in fact a B/W linear driver. I have also personnally do some measurements and I confirm his results.

 

You could be interested in this ABW mode because it allows for "toning" B/W prints (e.g. Sepia, Cold/blue tone) in many ways.