Monocrome inks with 2100/2200 printer

I have been working with B/W images but have hit on the problem of printing them with good result. Using QuadTone RIP and the standard Epson inks give me almost what I want but almost always I have to do a few prints before I have tweaked the results.

QuadTone RIP, that I feel works well and give great bang for the bucks, also support Piezography Neutral K7, Mediastreet Generations QuadBlack and MIS Associates Ultratone so I would like to test some of these. I can get a good used 2100 that I would like to use for B/W printing and in Sweden I may be able to get Mediastreet GQ from a distributor but the other two I have found no supplier of in Europe. From other forums I get the feeling that the US suppliers handles exports well so in the end there is no problem getting any of the inks.

So, are there any one who have experience of using these inks? How do they work, both mechanincaly (clogs, cleaning) and there printing performance? Should I persue this line or are there better alternatives without costing an outragous amount of money?

/glz

Hi Goran,

http://www.lyson.com/ukhome.html are in the uk, with distributors in Europe. I had reason to contact them a few years ago, and found them helpful, although I have not used their products. I have a continuous ink system on an r1800, which reduces the cost per print significantly, and the free software from http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml is well worth the money, if you are pc based.

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Goran,

I also use the Lyson CIS, but on the Epson 2100. The colour match is good with the Cavepaint ink set (Lyson ICC profile) on Lyson papers, I rate the Pro Satin (265gsm) above all others. The Pro Gloss exhibits neglible metamerism and the matte papers are good but a little thin. The cost of a finished print (Satin or Gloss) in a 20 x 16" mount with backing sheet and bagged works out to be ~£3.50. Nothing comes close in terms of cost or quality.
I also have a 2nd 2100 (bought for £60) which when I get round to fixing (vacuum pump gear broken) will be converted to a the Lyson's Quad black CIS. This is a seven density ink set, which are a combination of Lyson's cool, warm and neutral tone black inks. You cant fault Lyson ink, but the CIS parts are a little cheaply made. I resorted to hot melt gluing mine to the printer and adding another tube guide. Works a treat but you must print with it regularly.

Hi John,

I got my cis from fotospeed, in UK. I think they call it the 'Nordik' it originates from somewhere in Europe. I've a feeling they may be able to supply parts, if ever you need them - i.e. the cis trick is in the 'cartridge'. If you get that, then the tubing and rest of the bits are more easily sourced.

Best wishes,

Ray

I got the used 2100 up and running yesterday and, using Lyson QuadBlack inks, I was blown away by the impact of the first test prints.

The tone curves supplied with QuadToneRIP for Mediastreet Generations QuadBlack seems to match this ink very well and the control over tone is very good. So far it seems that you need to apply more sharpening to the image when using these curves. The images printed via PS/default Epson driver and my normal output sharpening seems a little bit crisper but I will need to work more on my B&W process before I can say for sure.

The only thing I am a bit weary about is the quality of the Lyson ink cartridges. The feel of them, compared to the original Epson's, is cheap and the fit is less precise with only one lock at the chip end. This lock is flimsy and on one of them I had to back the locking arm with a small roll of paper as it didn't extend back enough to engage the print head lock. But so far they keep in place and I have had no problems with the actual printing.

/glz

Goran, are you familiar with the DigitalBlackandWhitethePrint list or the QTR list on yahoogroups.com? There you will find lots of folks using 3rd party inksets in these printers. I'm actually considering adding the Piezography K7 inks to my 2200 which will be retired as soon as I get my new 3800. I still also have a 1280 and the K6 inks would work in it, but I would prefer the 2200 to print with. I've put off for years dedicating the 1280 to b/w and used QTR with OEM inks in the 2200 instead (since I also print color).
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/QuadtoneRIP/

Diane

Hi Diane,

Yes, I am a member of both groups and try to follow the discussions. It was after reading about the need to purge and clean when switching between different inks, I decided to get a used 2100 for my B&W printing. It just seemed like a common sense thing to do just to minimize the hassle.

/glz

Göran Löwkrantz said:

Hi Diane,

Yes, I am a member of both groups and try to follow the discussions. It was after reading about the need to purge and clean when switching between different inks, I decided to get a used 2100 for my B&W printing. It just seemed like a common sense thing to do just to minimize the hassle.

/glz

Click to expand...

Goran, I'm curious what you are using for your color prints--assuming that you also print color since you are buying a separate printer for b/w.

Diane

Hi Diane,

I have another 2100 with Epson UltraChrome for color.

/glz

Diane,

do you think it's worthwhile using an Epson 3000 (it's a CMYK 4 color dye ink printer) with these 3rd party inks for B&W as opposed to using a K3 printer and Epson inks?

IOW, what would it get me? I'm wondering whether or not to keep it or use it as a trade-in?

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Diane,

do you think it's worthwhile using an Epson 3000 (it's a CMYK 4 color dye ink printer) with these 3rd party inks for B&W as opposed to using a K3 printer and Epson inks?

IOW, what would it get me? I'm wondering whether or not to keep it or use it as a trade-in?

Asher

Click to expand...

Asher, the group/list Goran and I mentioned could answer this better--BUT--just taking a wild guess---even the old 1280/13" (which you can get for $139 these days I hear---I have an old one just brought back to life yesterday after over a year untouched)--is a 6 ink printer. As I understand it--the more shades of grey, the better the tonality. I wonder if you could find a good inkset for it---but don't know that. I feel sure that you will do wonderfully with a 6/7 ink printer (older) with inksets for that many shades. Before I would invest in a dedicated b/w system I would do a bit of research. Paul Roark's site is good http://home1.gte.net/res09aij/--he worked with the MIS inksets----and the Piezography site good too (if I convert--I think I will go with Piezography K7 inks for my 2200---but right now---I'm gong to use it for 'experimentation' with fabric printing).
http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.362672/sc.15/.f

After receiving the Epson samples from the 3800 yesterday (b/w and color), I'm going to try both the ABW and also toned monos of my own using good paper profiles before dedicating a printer to b/w.

BTW--the Epson 3800's are shipping in the US--not to me, unfortunately. I am now 68 on inkjetart's deposit list, BUT---Samy's in CA had 3 in stock after fulfilling their orders (shipping palettes' full as he said)according to his post on LL this afternoon. I'm sure they are gone--but I bet CA and NY will have some actually floating around. Not so for western NC--so I'm going to stick with my number on the list since I like the IJA folks.

Diane

Diane

Thanks for the info. Paul Roark's site, http://home1.gte.net/res09aij/--he doesn't work.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Thanks for the info. Paul Roark's site, http://home1.gte.net/res09aij/--he doesn't work.

Asher

Click to expand...

Did I miss part of it?? Just copied this from the page. Nope--it works for me. Try again Asher..

http://home1.gte.net/res09aij/

Diane