A New B&W Inkjet Option; Using An Epson R800 Or R1800 With B&W 100 Percent Carbon MIS Ink
David B. Brooks, February, 2008
I had just about given up on ideal black and white inkjet printing and settled
for the printer company compromised solution, which first appeared with the
Epson R2400. Like other photographers who do both color and black and white,
I’d tried and failed using a converted, dedicated black and white printer
using “independent” inks. That solution proved too troublesome if
not used almost every day. But black and white prints made with color printers
are more expensive and involve the use of some color inks to print black and
white. Many have now realized that route as too compromised because colored
inks in a black and white print can and have already been seen to shift in tone,
due to differential fading not only between the black and the color inks but
also between the color inks themselves. Even so, this was an acceptable state
of affairs until I heard from the inventive black and white photographer, Paul
Roark, who proposed a new, better, more archival, and less costly solution.
I might not have been moved enough to try Roark’s new black and white
printing option if it weren’t for receiving frequent e-mails from photographers
just getting into digital who want to scan (and print) their collections of
black and white film. Many, like me, are older and retired, so are on a budget,
and aren’t ready for an expensive professional-level printer. So, when
I was informed that this new black and white printing solution was based on
the Epson Stylus Photo R800 or R1800, I thought it posed a more affordable option,
especially when I learned that adding three channel black and white 100 percent
carbon pigment ink quality fully preserves the printers’ color printing
performance. Of course, there is a proviso—you lose the ability to print
on RC (Resin Coated) paper. But that is something I approve of, not just because
plastic prints are of dubious quality and longevity, but these days we need
as much reason as possible to use fewer petroleum-based products like polyethylene-coated
printing paper.
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Documentary and historical subjects usually demand detailed image
information and restrict aesthetic considerations like dramatic
lighting. This puts special demands on printing to achieve both
overall brilliance and the internal contrast that defines image
detail. I was pleasantly surprised the inexpensive PremierArt
Watercolor produced prints which fulfilled these demands.
All Photos © 2007, David B. Brooks, All Rights Reserved
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The Tool Kit
The two printers currently supported in Roark’s setup are the Epson Stylus
Photo R800, with a list price of $399, and the Epson Stylus Photo R1800, at
$549. The R800 is a letter-size printer and the only one of that size offering
eight-color UltraChrome pigment ink archival color printing. The R1800 is a
13” wide Epson printer using the same UltraChrome eight-ink colors. Both printers also support CD-R/DVD-R direct label printing
on blank discs that support inkjet printing.
You also need a software addition that provides a separate, independent driver
for either a Windows or Apple Mac computer. This driver is called a QuadToneRIP
or QTR for short, a Raster Image Processor that allows the separate control
of ink applied from each ink position (color ink cartridge). To make either
the R800 or R1800 a dual-purpose color and black and white printer, 100 percent
carbon black ink cartridges are installed in three cartridge positions of either
printer, the PK (Photo Black), MK (Matte Black), and GL (Gloss Optimizer). To
make a black and white print after the QTR driver is installed, instead of selecting
the Epson driver, QTR is selected. It makes the print by using only the three
ink position channels with MIS black ink that have replaced the PK, MK, and
GL Epson cartridges.
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It was midsummer in the interior lake country of British Columbia
and a pronounced haze accentuated the distance, but created a
large difference in local contrast between foreground and the
receding mountains. But printing with an R800, MIS Eboni inks,
and QTR made it possible to reproduce detail in the foreground
as well as good separation of tones in the distance.
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The QTR software is shareware and the creation of Roy Harrington. It can be
downloaded for either Windows or Mac at www.quadtonerip.com.
A user may download QTR (and with accompanying support documentation), try it
out, and, if it works for them, pay a $50 user fee and register the application.
Before you can actually use either an R800 or R1800 Epson printer with QTR to
make black and white prints, you will need to obtain Eboni black ink cartridges
for the R800/R1800 (both printers use the same cartridges) from MIS Associates
at www.inksupply.com/r1800_bo.cfm.
At minimum you will need three cartridges, one for each position: GL (Gloss
Optimizer), PK (Photo Black), and MK (Matte Black). The MIS part numbers are
UTBO-T0540-EK, UTBO-T0541-EK, and UTBO-T0548-EK. I think you will be encouraged
by the MIS price of $10.95 per cartridge, and the fact MIS also offers the entire
color position replacements for both the R800 and R1800 printer at this same
price, as well as cleaning cartridges. In addition, much more savings can be
realized by refilling the cartridges, a process that is fully explained on the
MIS website.
QTR Printing Workflow
The QTR QuadR800/R1800 printer driver is linear and expects a gray scale black
and white photo file (above) to also be linear, without an embedded gray scale
profile which has a curve. All of the standard Adobe Photoshop gray scale work
space profiles like Gray Gamma 2.2 have a nonlinear curve which will influence
internal contrast, particularly affecting shadow detail in any resulting prints
made with QTR. To match on-screen adjustments you must use the Photoshop Edit
command Convert to Profile, and select the Destination Space: QTR - Gray Matte
Paper (which should be available in the profile drop-down list as it is installed
as part of QTR).
Once the profile conversion is made, carefully check the appearance of your
image on screen in Photoshop and make any minor adjustments to the image for
contrast and brightness. These changes should be subtle if the image was previously
edited to be ready for printing. I found these small adjustments, if needed,
are most easily accomplished using the Photoshop Highlight/Shadow adjustment
dialog to nudge highlight, shadow, mid-tone contrast, and brightness values.
Then save the image, or use Save As with a modified file name if you don’t
want to change your original, and be sure the Save dialog has Embed Profile
turned on and that it identifies QTR - Gray Matte Paper as the profile to be
embedded.
Oops! You don’t use the full CS version of Photoshop but Photoshop Elements
instead that doesn’t have Profile Conversion? Well, if you use an Apple
Mac, go into Applications on your HD and down to Utilities and launch the ColorSync
Utility, which has the capability to change the profile of an image file opened
in the Utility. If you are a Windows PC Photoshop Elements user, go to page
#5 in Roark’s PDF document and you will find you can use a Curve Layer
file “Gray-Gamma-22-toQTR.tif” in a ZIP file that may be downloaded.
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