FDanB@aol.com
Date: 12/31/02-03:52:32 PM Z
Judy said in her message...
>But I gather the advantage of 2200 is less metamerism? More archival?
>But i like not having to worry about cost of ink... (cost of head clogs is
>something else).
A qualified artist-friend conducted a thorough test of the 2200 and 7600,
comparing the output of images designed to look like warm-toned
monochromatic prints. The metamerism is better but...still there. This
artist had two rooms set up: one with 6500K lighting (a common "daylight"
color temp) and one with 3200 lighting (to simulate quartz gallery
lighting). The print that looked good in one light looked terrible in the
other. In short, he had to print for the KIND of light under which his
prints were to be displayed.
Picture this: I could stand in the doorway joining the two rooms and hold
a print flat at waist level. I'd then hold a piece of cardboard
vertically in the middle of the print, using the cardboard as a barrier
of sorts that limited the light from each adjacent room to just one side
of the print. Looking down at this "divided" print, the two regions were
as different as night and day. One side would be glaringly green or
magenta, depending on whether he had printed the warm tone image for
daylight or tungsten viewing.
It appears that, as good as the latest generation of inkjet printers is,
metamerism remains the Achilles heel of pigment printing. Note that
full-color output (images including all colors, not just those vying for
warm monochromatic results) or pure neutral images (using just the black
ink) are much better at maintaining a constant appearance under different
lights. Different paper surfaces will also affect how much color shift
occurs.
In short, pigments that lie on the surface of the paper are more prone to
shift color than are dyes that absorb and diffuse into the substrate.
Additional advances in desktop printing will certainly take care of this
but I did want to give a heads-up to those for whom critical color in
warm-tone inkjet prints is imperative.
Dan
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