Epson 2200 b&w only using blk & ltblk carts only?

[kenc]

Greetings,

 

I only want to print B&W with my 2200 -- no color. It occured to me

that the problems with metamersism, bronzing, and whatever else, could

possibly be reduced (eliminated?) by using just the black carts. But

several threads indicated that this results in lower resolution, i.e.

'dotting'.

 

Has anyone considered replacing the CcMmY carts with BbBbB or

MBbMBbMb? It seems that I get to keep the high resolution, but only

print with black.

 

Of course there may be some problems with some

what-used-to-be-CcMmY-but-are-now-BbBbB combinations not matching my

idea of a proper grey, but couldn't that be worked out by using some

sort of color matcher or grey balancer... or something. (As you might

have guessed, I'm pretty new to this and my grasp of the finer points

of digital may be somewhat tenuous <grin>.)

 

I tried fitting the carts last night and discovered that they are

'keyed' differently (no doubt to protect the consumer from

him/herself), but I thought that with some sharp tools & patience that

I might be able to make them fit.

 

Before I go crazy and ruin some perfectly good carts can someone tell

me why this won't work. Or won't work well enough to make it

worthwhile? Or has been tried before and failed miserably. Or better

yet, think of an easier way to make the Blk & ltBlk carts fit where

they're not supposed to.

[steven_clark]

Printing with black inko only does NOT change the resolution! It only makes the image grainier because it has to render it with only two inks instead of seven. Putting black in the other tanks will only screw up your picture as black has a much higher density that one of the colors would. Also you would be using the exact same inks anyway so even if you overcame all the technical hurdles there would be no advantage. In other words: DON"T DO IT!

[kenc]

Steven,

 

<p>Thanks for your reply.</p>

 

<p><i>Printing with black inko only does NOT change the resolution! It only makes the image grainier because it has to render it with only two inks instead of seven.</i></p>

 

<p>That's why I want to use all seven 'inks', I just want all the inks to be black.</p>

 

<p><i>Putting black in the other tanks will only screw up your picture as

black has a much higher density that one of the colors would.</i></p>

 

<p>I acknowledged that that might be a problem, maybe I'll use ltBlk in all the other positions.</p>

 

<p><i>Also you would be using the exact same inks anyway so even if you overcame all the technical hurdles there would be no advantage.</i></p>

 

<p>My hoped for advantage would be NO color cast/metamerism/bronzing and complete resolution.</p>

 

<p>Now that I think of it, isn't this what <i>Piezography</i> and those other systems with third party inks do? I've looked (some) but haven't find such a system for a 2200. Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough? Anyone know of such a system for a 2200?</p>

[steven_clark]

Piezography buts in 5 different shades of black instead of the one you already have. More of the same ink would have no advantage.

[daniel_staver1]

I've refilled the five color positions in my 2100 with the Ultratone BW inks from MIS (www.inksupply.com). To do it I rinsed some old cartridges with tap water until there was no ink left in them and then filled them with the BW inks. For details on how to refill the 2100/2200 carts I can highly reccommend this site:

 

http://www.anestoday.com/epson2200/index.htm

 

It's got everything you would ever need to know about refilling these cartridges.

 

The Ultratone inks consists of three grays and two purplish toner inks that are put in the magenta positions. The grays are naturally very warm, so toner inks are needed to make cooler prints. The amount of toner ink you add is controlled by applying the correct curves in photoshop before you print. This also allows you to go from warm sepia to neutral to cool bluish tone in your prints without changing the inkset.

 

This is a highly experimental setup, since the inks are designed for older Epson models, but I find it works well on matte papers, with beautiful, neutral tones, great detail, and I almost dotless prints. On glossy papers it's a different story, I get mottling in the shadow areas and find myself unable to cool down the shadows from the brown tones of the Photo Black and Light Black inks. I print on matte papers 99% of the time, so for me it's not a big deal.

 

The BW prints I'm getting with this setup is so much better than anything I've gotten with the default inks and drivers, and the cost is low. The price for refilling the carts are about 1/8 compared to buying new.

 

I would hestitate to reccommend this to anyone though. You need the be very willing to experiment with your printer, risk voiding your warranty, and expect to spend lots of time tweaking curves to get perfect results.

[daniel_staver1]

Oh, and yes, you can cut the carts to shape. But you also have to change the chips to one that matches the position you're putting the cart in. Otherwise the printer refuses to accept it, showing a red light in that position just like if it was empty. I've done this a couple of times when I filled the wrong tone of ink in the wrong cartridge. Then I simply switched chips, cut the cart, and everything worked just fine.

[__jon__]

Hi Ken,

 

First, I would subscribe to this list:

 

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

 

(dig around in the links/files sections, a wealth of info)

 

For black only printing, see here:

 

http://www.cjcom.net/articles/digiprn3.htm

[joseph_wisniewski]

The Epson 2200 light black isn't a particularly neutral black. Take an "empty" black cart (it has a few mils of ink left) crack it open, dilute the ink a bit and brush it on a paper. Check out the magenta tones.

 

Ciao!

 

Joe

[ronald_patton1]

Ken,

 

I use a RIP (raster image processor) made by ImagePrint for my 2200 (and 9600's). When I select a "gray" profile and and leave the tint set to neutral, they only use the black and lt. black inks (Gray Pigment ink set). It makes wonderful black and white prints. If you are using any of the Fine art papers/matte papers you should be using the Matte black ink. The results with the matte black on the matte papers are very rich. If you use the Matte black on a photo paper, the ink sets on the paper and smears. If you use the Photo black on the fine art/matte papers you never get black, just dark gray.

 

You might want to look at the ImagePrint software if you are planning a lot of B&W printing. If you are doing a serious amount of printing, you may also want to consider getting a 7600. The cost of the ink is much lower (a 2200 ink holds about 12 ml of ink and cost around $12, a 220 ml ink cart (yes, they will work on the 7600!) costs me about $84. Paper comes on rolls and is also a better buy. (you can still use sheet stock) So, the cost per print goes way down (to about 1/3 of a 2200 print) and they print much faster.

 

Oh yes, the good folks at Epson have a chip in each ink cart that is used to identify the color and keep track of the ink level. You would need to do some very fancy surgery to make a black cart work in a color slot.

 

Ron