Looking to dip my toe in.. (B&W printing)

[damien.murphy]

November 26, 2008 at 11:15 am

Hi,

I’m looking to dip my toe into some printing, but have always been intimidated where to start..

I’m interested solely in printing black & white, and really not looking to spend more than a few hundred euro for this first baby step into printing.

I can’t see myself printing larger than A4 to start, and do not mind (even prefer) a dedicated printer for B&W. I’m using lightroom too, if that makes any difference.

Interested and appreciative of any advice,

Damien
p.s. nothing over €200/ €300

[guthrij]

November 26, 2008 at 11:45 am

Balck and White printing is tricky. I am sure there are techies out there who might disagree but I would send my files to Ilford.

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/wheretobuy/page.asp?n=145

Here is a pdf file order form.

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/200811141524341263.pdf

Cheers, John

[stcstc]

November 26, 2008 at 1:25 pm

do you mean digital printing or traditional printing?

[damien.murphy]

November 26, 2008 at 1:47 pm

Digital printing, Steve

I just thought of that after I posted! :)

I would eventually like to dip my toe into B&W traditional printing too, but have seen enough from books to indicate this can be quite a knowledge-rich area. I’m mainly digital at the moment & want to focus on printing from my current images first

Thanks for the Ilford info John, but I really want to focus on printing myself to help me learn more.

EDIT: Wow John, just checked the prices from Ilford – not an inexpensive solution by any means!

Damien

[guthrij]

November 26, 2008 at 5:19 pm

I have never been happy with B&W prints from a colour printer. They usually have a colour cast and if you just print in B&W you loose the subtle shades of gray in the image. You can buy a set of monochrome ink cartridges for some inkjet printers to repalce the colour set.

Here is some info for an Epson 1400. The printer can be bought in the UK for about £250.

http://www.specialistinks.com/r1400-bulk-system-mono.php

Cheers.

John

[stcstc]

November 26, 2008 at 5:39 pm

you should buy either the epson 2880 or the canon one, think it the 9500, they both have 3 black inks and work quite well

sheldon photo and paddy barker both sell these and are sponsors of the site

i use a large format epson and with clever choice of paper can get stunning results

[jb7]

November 26, 2008 at 6:01 pm

If you get an Epson you’ll be able to use your colour inks to get excellent results using the Quad Tone Rip-
http://www.quadtonerip.com/html/QTRoverview.html
shareware, about $50-

There should be a list of supported printers on the site-

btw, silver printing b&w is not at all complicated,
but like everything else that doesn’t have an Auto button,
there are opportunities to make mistakes at every step.

Hopefully, those mistakes will be welcomed as feedback on the process,
and it wont be necessary to make them more than once.

Of course, it’s possible to complicate the processes involved-
but only if you want to-

j

[damien.murphy]

November 26, 2008 at 6:34 pm

Hi guys,

Thanks for the info

Alas, I’m not ready to splurge 500/ 600 on a printer yet, just looking to dip my toe in, otherwise the Epson 2400/ similar would be my first choice

Very interested in the option of 3rd party black & white inks in place of the colour inks in a printer – has anyone experience of these ?

I remember checking out the Lyson inks several times in the past, but when it came to compatible printers, many of those supported were no longer in production unfortunately

I guess b&w inks in a reasonably priced A4 printer are what interest me most, but I’ve never spoken to anyone with experience of this set-up.

The quadtone rip approach interests me too – do you have any experience of this set-up, j ? I always thought using colour inks for b&w would leave colour casts..

Damien

[jb7]

November 26, 2008 at 6:46 pm

I use it on an Epson R1800-
and the results are good-
no casts, though you have control of the tone, which is a different thing-

The R1800 is a great printer for colour glossies,
but unfortunately the rip doesn’t support gloss-

I have used it to print on watercolour paper,
and although I’m less than impressed with the depth of the blacks on this setup,
it does produce better results than the Epson driver-

The 2400 (even a used one, if you can find it) with this rip should produce results as good as you can get-
though the Lyson looks good too-

If I was into experimenting, I’d have a look at Carbon inks…

http://www.inksupply.com/bwpage.cfm

j

[stcstc]

November 26, 2008 at 7:27 pm

the big difference is that the 1800 is a dye based system and the 2400/2880 is a pigment based system

the pigment stuff is better longevity

the dye based with give you a wider colour gamut

[damien.murphy]

November 29, 2008 at 11:42 am

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the feedback

Looks like I will go down the quad black ink approach – now just to locate one of the supported R200/ 300 printers

It doesn’t seem like any of the supported printers are still on general sale – any info re: sources for these printers much appreciated (Only currently produced model: R285 does not seem to be one of the Quad black supported printers)

Damien