Can anyone explain this technique for enhancing digital B&W prints?

[falcon7]

<p>I was looking over some reviews about the Epson r1900 photo printer, and a reviewer stated the following regarding his 'improvement' of the quality of B&W prints by making a small color adjustment. Can someone explain what he is doing based on the following taken from his review? I suspect the question marks (?) are conversions from some html code.</p>

<p><strong>"I was delighted to discover that the 5% opacity ?slightly brown? toning which I sometimes add for B/W print ?richness? also enhanced the neutrality of the R1900 B/W prints."</strong></p>

[acedigital]

<p>Sounds like they used the Opacity slider in Lightroom / PS- Again, this is what HE likes, and is all pretty subjective. Google is your friend now............</p>

<p>http://iit.bloomu.edu/vthc/photoshop/specialeffects/opacity.htm</p>

[howard_m]

<p>or i suppose he could have made the toning adjustment in the Epson ABW driver directly</p>

[falcon7]

<p>Thanks for the feedback. I am mainly concerned if there is some 'workaround' to improve the quality of B&W with the R1900 since I just bought one, and I've read so many criticisms of it regarding color casts in B&W output. Additionally, when the reviewer made the statement of the opacity with 'brown,' I'm not sure just what 'tint' of brown he referred to, unless, of course, it is a subjective decision on his part, which is most likely the case.</p>

[brian_ellis19]

<p>I don't know whether QTR supports the R1900 but you can easily find out. If it does then it's the best single, low-cost way I know of to improve b&w prints. www.harrington.com</p>

<p> </p>

[alan_goldhammer]

<p>The problem with the R1900 is that it only has the one black ink cartridge whereas the 2880 and higher up printers have light black and light light black cartridges that give you better gradation in B&W prints. Several people I know have adapted the R1900 to print with <strong><a href="http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/sc.15/category.6609/.f">Cone inksets</a></strong>. You may want to look into this if most of what you are doing is B&W.</p>

[KenPapai]

<p>The Epson R2400 and higher up have THREE black carts -- light light, light, and matte/photo depending on which paper you are using (or rather, are prepared for).</p>

<p>The R2400 was the game changer for top B&W prints, just over six years ago now.</p>

[1939noel]

<p>I'll go along with Ken. I have an R2400 and its brilliant for black and white. The only thing I would refer to is that when converting your image in Photoshop to black and white , make sure the image is slightly darker than you would like it to be.</p>