Advice needed for neutral black and white printing on stock Epson inks with 1280 printer

I have the 780 (narrow version of your 1280) and have had good results with the standard inks on Heavyweight Matte using the same settings as for color printing (gamma 2.2). The prints resemble silver halide prints on cold-tone, single-weight paper. I don't know if you'd actually confuse them with conventional prints, but the tones and gradations are pleasing if a bit on the cool side (but I've seen silver halide prints that are bluer). Just don't look at them with a magnifier, which will reveal the microscopic colored dots of ink. I was quite pleasantly surprised when I tried some black and white prints. I've never tried it with any paper other than the Heavyweight Matte (which I use for all my photo printing).

TT: There is not such a thing as a neutral black in ink-jets because there is not such a thing as a neutral black dye, the darkest dyes are deep blue. For that you have to go a 'paint-jet' like the Epson 2200 which produces totally neutral blacks. Also, metamerism has nothing to do with the paper but to the colouring agent, dye or pigment. Some colouring agents are more metameric than others. That said, some paper surfaces can emphasize some colours thus your observation. Nonetheless, the colour is the source of metamerism and that is where the cure resides.

yes but i should be able to dial in more magenta or something to compensate for the blue cast shouldn't i?

You would think it would be that simple, but I found that shadows, midtones and highlights behave differently. With my 1200, I have made the decision to try to control the color cast rather than eliminate it.

Do a severe test crop of your full sized image, lay it out on a canvas, and do test prints of critical areas. Saves ink and paper.

T T

You can't really - although you can improve it. This is one of the bugbears of all inkjet B&W printing (excepting, perhaps, piezography which has other issues). The much lauded 2200 might be a little better but still has metamerism. I use all black ink printing - this has two issues - visible dots in highlights and less smooth gradation - but you do get a very nice black on matte paper. I much prefer it to color ink. You have to do what you prefer. As there is really no solution as of now you have to decide which you prefer and go with it. Most people I have shown my prints to prefer the all black ink, but many people will not use it on principle as they feel the comporomise on tonal scale will ruin their art. You really need to look and decide yourself. But, the fundamental thing is is that these printers are fantastic for color, but a fudge for B & W.

Without resorting to exotic B+W ink sets and their associated problems, I would suggest a custom printer/paper profile...

I did mine at profile city for my 1280....my B+W is way better than stock epson profiles...Is it perfect, well, to the causual observer, yes...to me, there is still a bit of color cross over, but it's not bad and fine for my needs.....

FWIW

The best black and white prints I've seen from the 1280 and native inks were done with a custom profile. The photographer in question used a Monaco product but there are others out there as well. As has already been pointed out, inkjets don't excel at black and white printing.

Julio says: There is not such a thing as a neutral black in ink-jets because there is not such a thing as a neutral black dye, the darkest dyes are deep blue. For that you have to go a 'paint-jet' like the Epson 2200 which produces totally neutral blacks.

Readers need to understand that Julio has his own personal definition of "ink" and "paint" in use here. Julio believes that inks use dyes and paint uses pigments, so he calls inkjet printers that use pigment-based inks "paint jets". The fact that stone-plate lithographers have been using pigment-based inks since lithography was invented in 1798 doesn't seem to persuade him that inks use pigments, too. Incidentally, one of the most famous inks in the world, "India Ink", is made using carbon black pigment.

BTW, here's an article from a paint and coatings industry magazine discussing the use of pigments in ink:
(link)

well i gave in. i returned the 1280 and got the 2200. there goes my tax refund!

i got lucky, i decided to drive by my local CompUSA and although they did not have the 2200 on display, upon inquiry, i learned that they had one in back so i bought it.

i can't wait to try the matte black ink (store was sold out of that cartridge) on heavyweight matte paper. but in my first black and white test print, with the regular photo black ink installed, the black and white image on photo glossy paper looks much more even toned than the print with the 1280 did. and the tonality doesn't change nearly as much when i go under different lighting.

i surmise this is due to the fact that the 2200 adds light grey to it's pallette, whereas the 1280 had to use the CMYK colors (and it's black) to make up grey tones. i was getting blue and sometimes reddish variations with my black and white printouts on the 1280. a non quadtone inkjet black and white printout will probably never been perfect (ie. there will probably always been some color toning), but i can say that i'm much happier with the 2200 result than i was with the 1280 result (for a black and white print)

it is true that in a side by side comparison, the pure black of the 2200 is not as deep as the black from the 1280 but it's not noticeable if one doesn't point it out.