Bronzing problem solved on the Pro 9500

[mikling]

Many of the 4 color Epson printers do not use the K in the printing process if photo paper is chosen. This leaves an unused channel which is the black. If you were to use an optimizer in combination with the K channel, you'd be able to do what Rod is thinking of doing.

All the while I was always thinking of of Rod leaving the GO in the MK channel, actually. Otherwise it would sure be troublesome swapping between Black and perfectly clear/clean.

What I was unsure of and only Hat can confirm this is whether the GY is used at all in grayscale printing with Matte? I'm thinking this has to be if the coating is going to be clear.

 

[jtoolman]

AH!!!! I forgot about the 9500 having a gray cart. Would it use Gray if the paper choice is Plain or Matte? The last thing you would want is your print to be coated with GO and Gray when printing from a Black document to the print being GO treated!
I am not sure!

 

[The Hat]

I was also unsure as to which cartridges and how many would be used in making an all black overlay, I only used the plain paper setting and never tried the Matte setting at all.

The pro9500 is a bit unusual in its selection of cartridges unlike its cousin the 9000
which hardly ever uses the green and red cartridges were as the 9500 does.

I did test out whether any of the other colours were being used on plain paper or not
leaving no stone unturned I weight all of the ten cartridges prior to installation.

I wanted to be sure which cartridges the printer was going to use, was it just one, two or a mixture of the nine and I didnt think visual inspection alone would be enough hence the need for the scales.

I printed 25 sheets of solid A4 black with a tiny border (Margins) and weight all of the cartridges afterwards, as suspected all of the cartridges dropped a couple of points, the most was point 2 of a gram.

The on screen ink monitor showed a big drop in the MBK cartridge and the weight was down to by 10 grams which lead me to believe that only that one colour was being used.

I doubled checked another printed sample that I ran on custom (Very high speed) low quality to see (Loupe) if any other colours were present in the printed area and there wasn't.

I suggested one of the ways to control the output of the GO would be to use different paper settings but on reflection that would be a mistake I reckon so just stick to plain paper settings, and only use the tint and output qualities for control..

 

[jtoolman]

That makes total sense The Hat>
So where you able to arrive at a "Tint" setting or transparency seitting that gave you optimal gloss coverage?

Also did figure out whether using the Opacity setting or actually dialing in a level of black through solid grays, worked better, or did not make a difference?

Also, would you print from a black but RGB mode file or convert to Gray Scale prior to printing?

 

[rodbam]

Swapping the carts is not a problem for me as we can print up all the shots we want or save shots up until we have 4 or 5 & then put the GO cart in & optimise all the prints & swap the MBK ink cart back in. This is a lot easier than using can sprays. Of course if all of our printing is done on shiny type papers then it might be possible to leave the GO cart in all the time if it's shown the MBK doesn't get used on shiny papers.

 

[jtoolman]

I don't think that MK will be used as long as "Shinny" paper types are chosen.
My thought was more along the Gray ink, and whether it would be used in conjunction with the GO when printing your black document. That would not be good of course. Maybe if you choose plain paper it will only use MK and no Gray.

The PRO 9500 MKII drives does allow you to chose Photo Mode and still use plain paper as the choice with 3 quality choices.

 

[mikling]

Hat, if you simply printed a gray ramp with the plain paper or matte setting on white paper with the GO installed in the MK channel, I would think this would tell you for sure if the GY was being used by the color of the ramp. If it was all GO, it would be clear.

Do you think it would be of any use to print the B&W negative of the image with the GO?

 

[jtoolman]

Bingo Mike! You are the MAN!!!!
That would absolutely answer that question.

 

[rodbam]

I hope The Hat can translate all this stuff about grey ramps & negative image as I'm getting lost now. This was sounding very simple until you lot started talking brainy

 

[jtoolman]

It was Mike that suggested printing a black to white ramp to see is gray inks would be brought into play which we do not WANT!!!

Mike said:

"Do you think it would be of any use to print the B&W negative of the image with the GO?"

How would you be able to quarantee perfect alignment?
No need to do that as you will just be overcoating the whole print instead.