A different all-black ink printing method

[cls]

hellas costa!
I need your input, I started a new thread but disccorvery your old gold http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/worklog-diy-piezography-epson-6-color.9139/#post-71760

I want to convert a R285 6 Color Epson (very simliar printhead and mechanics as the 1400 but only A4/Letter) into 6 channel Black only printing, I was thinking to attempt with QTR
but your solution sounds even more reasonable

Is there any kind of workflow to create the readings with the colormunki? since thats the Tool I have in hand,
Printing Workflow tru epson drivers with or without ICC profile OR QTR regardless is fine with me
I want to be able to print matte B/W pictures
I have true B/W scans from old photobooks and other "colorfull" material

Since I want to use ALL 6 Channels to print B/W, an B/W Input image would NOT use all neccessary channels to print but Only Black since there is no "color" information there to control in the image, thats why I would use QTR for it

I would love to have a step-by-step Workflow
Plus I guess the Ink forumlar I want to mix is not really optimized

thx in advance
Serhat

 

[pharmacist]

Hi Serhat,

This is my mix:

Black: 100 % Photo or Matte Black
Magenta: 100 % Light Black (LB)
Cyan: 70 % Light Black (LB) + 30 % Light Light Black (LLB)
Light Magenta: 50 % Light Black (LB) + 50 % Light Light Black (LLB)
Light Cyan: 40 % Light Black (LB) + 60 % Light Light Black (LLB)
Yellow: 100 % Light Light Black (LLB)

 

[cls]

Great ! thx for your input, how does your workflow look? ICC profiling preview? anything?

 

[martin0reg]

...
The brightness values (%) should give an indication of the dilution required.
For instance, I found the following for the 1400, and I have to say, it works like a charm, in fact, I never remember getting anything that good from any printer I had, including the 7900...
Yellow --> 60%, or 4 parts black/6 parts GO
Black --> Black
Light magenta --> 70%, or 3 parts black/7 parts GO
Magenta --> 40%, or 6 parts black/4 parts GO
Cyan -->30%, or 7 parts black/3 parts GO
Light cyan --> the same dilution as used in color printing, that is, 2 parts Cyan + 1 part GO
...

@costadinos
I am a little confused:
- are these dilutions based on your measurements of printed colors with photoshop?
- to understand them correct, for example yellow, "4 parts black" means 40% of black ink and 60% of GLO, right? Not 60% of black ink!

These dilutions in the quoted post are different from your first post..so which do are better for epson 1400?
First post (after visually examin the ink)
K: 100%
C: 60%
M: 40%
Y: 10%
LC: 2/3 C = 40%
LM: 2/3 M = 26%

This post (after measurements of prints!?):
Bk > 100% BK
C > 7parts bk (=70% ..?? first post: 60%..)
M > 6parts bk (=60% ..?? first post: 40%..)
LC > 2/3 of C (=46% ..?? first post: 40%..)
LM > 3parts bk (=30%)
Y > 4parts bk (???)

And besides they are both much different from pharmacists calculation (referring to Paul Roark)
http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/making-a-b-w-ink-set-for-6-color-epson-printers.9198/
C: 30% black ink + 70% gloss optimizer
M: 18% black ink + 82% gloss optimizer
LC: 9% black ink + 91% gloss optimizer
LM: 6% black ink + 94% gloss optimizer
Y: 2% black ink + 98% gloss optimizer

Would be helpful to clear this up ... if you are still printing with such a self made ink set for pure B&W prints and getting really good results...

 

[nitrous]

When I worked in a bio research lab we did many a test which involved measuring the optical density ( OD ) of a fluid using a spectrophotometer. You filled a Quartz cuvette of specific dimensions with the fluid. The instrument would shine a beam through the fluid filled cuvette and give you the optical density of the fluid. Distilled water being used as the calibrating baseline.

This would be the perfect way to prepare the dilutions. Tested against matching actual samples of the Piezo inks.

Too bad I no longer have access to these great toys.

So it would have to be the flashlight behind the bottle way for me.

I do have about 20 ml each of the all Black inks from Inksupply that aren't really dilutions but instead a combination or cold, warm and neutral black with two shades of the neutral plus GLOP. Total 6 "INKS"
This is used in the 1400 loaded in specific original color locations.

The regular driver is used to print and the results were very good.

But if one can do as you have done with the super cheap OCP black inks and get great results then that would be quite a breakthrough.

Joe

I know that this is a very old post, but the comment about optical density reminded me of a paper that might be helpful to some looking to brew their own ink. This is a cheap OD meter that uses minimal parts and 3D printing. You can get quartz cuvettes but honestly, as long as what you get is uniform, and transmits light, you're on your way since you're really only looking for relative density against a reference ie GO or Distilled water.

Hope someone finds this useful.
Doug

https://www.researchgate.net/public..._meter/link/60a32eff299bf1d21d6d3b41/download