B&W on Canon Printers

[mikling]

Actually all four colors are replaced with 4 shades of black/grey that have matching tones. As stated one of the challenges was getting the Black to match the other grays. technically speaking in certain parts there are hints of inversion that are ever so slight. Playing with the sliders could possiby cure that. Thus far, with all positions in the middle and adjusting intensity I am able to get screen to print match. Again this varies by paper but only the intensity is enough to pull it in when necessary. There are 4 more sliders to play with but thus far I have found it unnecessary. at least to me.

I have formulated B&W inksets with pigments as well but they are a tricky to use and I often wondered if it was worth it or simply to get a 2400 or 2880. But with the Canon solution, there is no longer any need. Any mods to the cartridges are reversible and the cost is relatively affordable that allow printing for fun.

Since you are new to this board, many members know of me and know that the inks I use are available at a particular spot. Someone else might point out the link from which the inks are now available.

 

[Digital10d]

Very diplomatic.

 

[Red John]

Hi, can this presented system offer a quality of output in B&W better to the offered one for the Epson R2880?

 

[martin0reg]

So I am looking forward to the new grey ink set for canon printers in your ebay shop

which seem to be closed until september 1st:
http://stores.ebay.de/PrecisionColors?_rdc=1

I have a canon ip4000 (5 carts: C-M-Y-K + text/pigmentblack) and a S9000 for A3 (6 carts: C-M-Y-K-PC-PM)
The 9000 has two light colors (photomagenta and photocyan).
Will the grey set be adaptable for 6 cartridges? Perhaps by diluting the greys for PC and PM?

I will order the ink set to fill my ip4000 with grey ink as soon as possible!

 

[Digital10d]

Red John

I have the R2400 which withs it Advanced B&W mode produces excellent prints so I would guess that the R2880 would be the same. The big advantage I see that the Epson has is that through the driver ABW mode you are able to tone the output to your taste. Mikling,s B&W ink set using only black inks will produce neutral prints but of cause the only way of adjusting the tone will be by using different papers. With that limitation in mind Mikling's approach should be just as good. I'm going to give it a try so in a few weeks I will be able to report back. I have been playing around with PrintFab RIP which is able to print with just the black ink only. I tried BO printing a few years back with an old Epson and although the prints were neutral they were too grainy for my taste. The results from my IP4700 with its smaller ink drop size is very good and probably the easiest way of doing plug and play B&W. In the meantime I still think Canon is behind Epson as far as B&W. A few years ago Canon were producing 8 ink A4 printers. So now they can produce the same colour output with just 4 inks. Well am I the only one that thinks they now have the opportunity to make a 6 ink A4 adding two shades of grey, write a descent print driver and bingo !! Dream on.

 

[Red John]

Hi Digital10d, I will remain to the wait of your conclusions about these inks in the Canon IP4700.

If the results are equal of good that most advanced of the Epson 13" it would be more that interesting.

 

[nche11]

I have heard people home brewing ink for Epson printers successfully. But I doubt that can be easily achieved for Canon and HP printers.

 

[The Hat]

nche11 I have heard people home brewing ink for Epson printers successfully. But I doubt that can be easily achieved for Canon and HP printers.

Nche11 I dont know if youre referring to mikling with your comment on home brewing or not.
I wouldnt dare to call mikling ink home brew quite the opposite in fact its pure genius what he achieves with the different inks he produces.

 

[nche11]

Formulating ink is a high tech science that took many years by chemists, PHDs and huge investments in R&D efforts by printer companies. There is no way that it can be done correctly without significant involvement in actual research and training from it. So it's appropriate to call that home brewing of ink. It is probably based on try and error, a typical home brewing method. Home brewing is the correct term in this case.

By the way, I had lots of darkroom experience many ages ago in black and white film and paper. I know what it means to the magic of silver Halide emulsion based black and white print. There were many home brewed chemicals available in the market that simply could not match to Kodak D-76, DK-50, etc.

 

[Digital10d]

Hi all

Mikling B&W ink set arrived here in the UK within a week of ordering, great service. Once my first set of Canon OEM carts were used I flushed them and filled them using the German method. The German method was a first and was really very easy to do. Left the carts to seat for a day and then the fun began. Printed 6 purge pages to remove any traces of the colour ink. Printing from Lightroom onto glossy paper I set the Canon IP4700 driver to glossy and high quality. Just over a minute later I was looking at a very good totally neutral B&W print. I have tried many methods over the past few years and this has to be the most straight forward plug and play B&W printing I have tried. I have since printed a few of my own photos and the results are excellent. The inks I think have a cool tone to them. What surprised me most was how different papers of similar type produced such different tones cool to warm. The base white of the papers I have tried so far are similar and I was not expecting such differences. Early days yet but I think Ilford Classic is my favourite. The bottom line is if you have a Canon 5 ink printer and want to print neutral B&W then these inks are the way to do it. The only drawback is that the tone of the print depends on the paper so some experimenting is required to achieve a tone that you like.

Mikling thank you for your efforts. Now if you want another project how would your ink set be adapted for a 4 ink A3 Canon printer IX4000. A3 B&W interesting !!