Epson StylusRIP Professional vs. Piezography for 2200

[david_pichevin]

This thread started quite a while ago :) Stumbled on it while trying to find a solution to this phenomenon. I'm currently trying to produce some B&W prints on the 2200 for some people who posed for me, and I am totally unsuccessful, to the point where I would be ashamed to give them the prints (and they are not even "paying" customers). I am getting great color, fine-art prints, but B&W on this printer is terrible. Actually I WISH I could get a magenta cast. That would mean that my prints look fine under daylight. It's the opposite unfortunately.

 

Right now my house is bathed in daylight and giving to customers prints where they look sickly green under daylight is unacceptable. Don't worry, tonight when you turn on the light bulbs, they'll look fine! Having to buy a RIP that costs as much as the printer in order to print decent B&W is out of the question.

 

I have tried Quadtone RIP and it's really not a solution. More like replacing one problem with another, or several (lack of contrast, banding, bronzing, and total blindness on what you are actually doing with toning).

 

I am expecting to have some custom profiles made soon and see if that diminishes the issue to an acceptable level.

[william_moss]

This is an interesting thread because of all the raging concern over metamerism. It is definitely subjective, but I'm one of those who neither sees nor is bothered by the problem. I think people's brains differ on this. As an analogy, when I walk up to a computer monitor set at 60hz refresh rate, for example, I cringe; the person using the monitor may have sat in front of it for years without ever noticing. Go figure. I just fix it for them (higher refresh rate) and they still can't see any difference.

 

More importantly, to me, is the fact that it is difficult to get something equivalent to a high quality "fine art" b&w print from a 2200 printer, or its predecessors, never mind the metamerism or issues of tint.

 

I have used piezography successfully, but beware of the fact that Cone is still playing the same game as 5 years ago: the latest K7 inks being sold, for example, are advertised as "finally" being the answer to all the technical messes (and business deceptions) associated with piezography over the years. I will believe it when I see it.

 

The big missing element here is the fact that all of the new generation of Epson printers were designed specifically to address this lapse: the R2400 and its big brethren. The 2200 is long obsolete. The 2400 etc. use fundamentally redesigned heads and drivers, and more b&w cartridges, to try to do what piezography does without the constant mess and change. And BTW, since it was brought up, if you want to use the same printer, alternating between piezography and normal cartridges, good luck because you definitely will need it. VERY troublesome.

 

Great thread-

[discpad]

Yes, this thread started >3 years ago is still quite interesting!