Epson R3880 ABW Mode & Third Party Inks

[ianbarber]

<p>I do a fair amount of printing for personal use and the odd print sale and the cost of Genuine Inks has got me thinking about whether it is time to move over to third party inks.<br>

My workflow is fairly straightforward and goes like this.<br>

For my Black and White prints, I always print through the ABW driver and have been very pleased with the results. I understand that the ABW driver uses a tiny bit of cyan and yellow in order to neutralise the greys.<br>

Although I have read online that you should NOT use the ABW driver if using third party inks I haven't been able to find out why.<br>

The third party inks I have been looking at are the Marrutt Professional inks and refillable cartridges.<br>

<strong>Does anyone know if you can use the ABW mode with third party inks and if not why ?</strong><br>

<strong>Does anyone have any experience with third party inks for the Epson R3880 and also Marrutt Inks ?</strong><br>

Ian</p>

[howard_m]

<p>no first hand experience but my assumption would be that the driver makes specific assumptions in its dithering about how much non-black ink is required to neutralize or tone. So, it may simply give you something other than what you expect and you'd have to learn what ABW setting is required to get the toning you want.</p>

<p>You might want to look into using QTR software instead of ABW</p>

[ianbarber]

<p>Thanks Howard for the reply. <br>

I have tried QTR in the past but always found that it lacks profiles for the papers I use. I know you can make your own profile curves but the only instrument I have is the X-Rite Color Munki and I have never seen a detailed explanation on how to actually create these curves with tis device.</p>

[custom film holders for fl]

<p>Start reading at the top of page three of this QTR Tutorial to learn how to use your Munki to create your own custom profiles for QTR:<br /> http://www.diallophotography.com/pdfs/QTRworkflow.pdf</p>

[ianbarber]

<p>Very interesting read Doug although it does say</p>

<blockquote>

 

 

 

<p>Open ProfileMaker’s MeasureTool application. In the Configuring win- dow, choose your spectrophotometer model, select Reflection and uncheck the Spectral box. </p>

 

 

 

</blockquote>

 

 

 

<p>but unfortunately the x-rite color munki spectrophotometer is not in the list of available models</p>

 

 

 

[custom film holders for fl]

<p>Bummer but that software is pretty old. Not sure if the new version that X-rite provides still has the freely accessible module or not and if the Munki is even on that list.<br>

Try searching the archives of this group. If you still can't find a definitive answer, post a note to the forum. The archives of this group's posts is an amazing resource. <br>

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/QuadtoneRIP/info<br>

<br />Here is another great group of people, many who use Quadtone RIP, that may be able to advise:<br>

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/info</p>

[custom film holders for fl]

<p>Ian - take a look at this article I just came acroos where Keith Cooper tells how he uses a Munki with to build b/w profiles for QTR. I think it might be a solution for you.<br>

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/bw_printing/bw_print_colormunki.html</p>