U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Third party inks for negative printing

Third party inks for negative printing



Keith and Marek,

I find the density of eboni black too high for gum negatives. Also, like most mat black inks there is allways some inksmearing on many substrates. If I am right Marek uses a black only approach. This could work for gum also but only with a bitmapped negative I think. Where dots can be opaque.

My approach is different. I am using MIS (inksupply.com) UT black/ grey inks with a CIS. I am using QuadToneRip (quadtonerip.com) fot outputting to my printer so I can specify what ink the rip uses. The trick is not to use the black ink and only print with the next dark grey for the darkests tones and the other greys for the rest. With QTR one can specify where each ink takes over frome the previous one.

As the MIS UT inks are very warm toned on some substrates you get a negative that is really warmblack and is very solid and scratch restant. And a density that is at least enough for gum and cyanotype. This works great on AGFA CopyJet and the Ultrafine film and will do the same on Pictorico I think. It works just like Dan's approach with his warmblack setting on the 2400 advanced black and white mode.

If you want to use the inks whithout the rip you probably get better results with the mis photoblack ink instead of eboni.

kees

PS Found another excellent printing substrate this week that seems to work very good with my grey ink approach. I will test and report soon!

On 26-okt-2006, at 0:03, Marek Matusz wrote:

Keith,

I have been using Eboni black from MIS associates in my 2200 for over a year now. It will work in all Epson printers using pigmented inks, perhaps htey have a version for dye printers as well. The ink is 2-3 dollars to refill the cartridge if you buy it in bulk. I have been refilling the cartridge that I bought from them with no issues at all. I can print 50 or more 8x10 prints from a cartridge, depending on how much ink density is desired. The Eboni black has more then enough density to print palladium, you should be fine with gum then, just a curve or a line to limit the ink output. The ink prints fine on all the transparencies that I tried. It is really not that expensive. On the other hand I just noticed that the price of Epson cartriges for 2200 went from $10 to 16.

Marek Matusz


From: Ender100@aol.com
Reply-To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: How many gum layers (Re: ferri sesquichlorati)
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 16:47:53 -0400 (EDT)

Hi Keith,

Certainly you could go with a CIS system and use cheaper 3rd party inks. A lot of people do that. Just be sure you can get a film substrate/Ink combination that are compatible... inks like some substrates better than other. There should be a means of testing this...I think the ink manufacturers would probably be willing to print a sample file on your choice of substrate so you would have a sample to review.

Best Wishes,
Mark Nelson

Precision Digital Negatives - The System
PDNPrint Forum at Yahoo Groups
www.MarkINelsonPhoto.com



In a message dated 10/25/06 3:19:10 PM, Keith@GumPhoto.com writes:


I've been out of the inkjet circuit for years. I have no need for archival inks. For that matter, I have no need for even GOOD ink. Other than rendering a printer useless for anything else, is there any reason I couldn't get one of those continuous-feed systems and dump in India ink or Sumi ink or something else? I'm serious. I just want to print cheap ink onto cheap paper for the purpose of making cheap gum prints. The negative doesn't have to last more than a day or so. In fact, I'd prefer if it didn't last! Are there any cheap maverick-consistent alternatives that you can think of employing?











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