What options for making B&W art prints?

1) dont use a paper/ink combo, it will have different color casts in different lights 2) http://www.mpix.com http://www.adoramapix.com http://www.photoworkssf.com both offer printing onto ilford b/w paper, the same stuff b/w negs get printed on.

adoramapix prints on it up to 11x14 according to their price list it's $5.99 the same print size from mpix is $8.79 and from S.F. photo works an 8x12(their largest size on true b/w paper) is $5.00.

Larger than that your only option is mpix, who will print up to 20x30 at $31.99

dont use a paper/ink combo, it will have different color casts in different lights

No it won't. A printer using a dedicated B/W inkset or a recent printer with 2 or more grays driven by a properly configured RIP will give completely neutral prints without any color casts or shifts due to lighting. This was a problem 2-3 years ago, but the current generation of inkjets from Epson, HP, and Canon all use multiple gray inks and make quite decent B/W prints right out of the box.

That said, setting up a B/W inkjet system is probably more money and trouble than you want to spend for a dozen prints. Depending on where you live, there may be a local pro lab or fine art printer that does B/W inkjet printing. They can probably show you ink and paper samples that will help you find the most suitable look a lot better than internet advice will. I don't know of any large mailorder lab that does it, but I think you'll get much better results from working with a skilled local printer than from some online print factory. If you're in or around the SF Bay area, I can recommend some people here.

Costs will depend on the type of paper and ink as well as how much work the lab does to optimize the output. I'd guess about $15-20 for an 8.5x11 or $40-50 for 13x19 would be reasonable.

Talk to these people

http://www.bestlab.com/

They will do hand printing of your digital file. They do very nice work.

Michael

Bill,

You have many options. Here's one for low cost, high quality art prints.

Assuming that your print will be on 8.5x11" paper, here's you will need:

One Epson R220 printer.

One Carbon Ink cartridge (Eboni Black) from www.inksupply.com to replace the Epson black ink cart.

Black Only Printing Method (BO) by Clayton Jones at http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

For Proofing paper: Epson Enhanced Matt.

For printing your finished work: Epson Velvet Fine Art or Premier Art Hot Press Fine Art Paper or any Acid Free 100% cotton printing paper that you might fancy. See the above link for paper suggestions.

This is a simple, low cost DIY printing project. It will help you make high quality art prints.

Good luck.

If you want to send them out to a print service, Calypso Imaging does exceptional quality work. Check out their website for details on printing services, prices, etc.:
   http://www.calypsoinc.com/

If you are looking for a printer to do this kind of printing yourself, I highly recommend the Epson R2400 and Epson Enhanced Matte, Epson Fine Art Velvet papers. The Epson uses the K3 pigment inkset, which is very archival, and the profiles supplied for these papers make superb B&W prints straight out of the box. Enhanced Matte tends to be warm and yellows a little over time which some people don't like ... I have 5 year old prints on the wall that have yellowed a little but look wonderful anyway, however. Fine Art Velvet is a much thicker, more archival paper.

Godfrey

I'm going to second the http://www.bestlab.com option now in addition to my previous ideas. I've never used them myself, but have seen results and they're really awsome. Why mess with inkjets even with pigment prints when you can have a fiber base selenium toned print?

Bill, on the right hand side of the digital darkroom page is an index. One of the topics is black and white printing, lots of good information there. I would also suggest you take a look at QTR (QuadToneRip) mentioned in many of the posts. Of course this is only useful if you do your own printing, which I also highly suggest!

"Why mess with inkjets even with pigment prints when you can have a fiber base selenium toned print?"

I understand where you're coming from on this but the reasons in this case might include

1.the fact that they charge $120 for a 11" x 14" selenium toned print. I pay my lab ( admittedly in London) about $45 for a print on 16" x 12" paper.

2. The fact that they don't offer any variation in papers or chemistry. You get a gloss paper printed how they do it, and that's it.

3. They would rather work from a colour original and seem reluctant to accept files which have been converted to b&w. They are clearly more comfortable working on material where the photographer hasn't developed a clear view of what the print should look like.

I'm assuming that you want to have these prints made commercially rather than buy and learn a moderately complex system with a learning curve. If so the world is increasingly your oyster. You can;-

Send your files to a top end lab like WCI (www.westcoastimaging.com) or Calypso having applied the profiles they provide, and get output on a LightJet/Chromira, or any of a range of inkjet printers at pretty much whatever size you want ( so long as your file size will support it) and on a huge range of papers. Choosing might be the toughest thing but their web-sites will help and they may even be able to send you some small sample prints to show how the various papers turn out. Their pricing for "preflighted" prints is on their sites too.is on the web-sites too.

If you are unsure about the quality of your files you can ask these labs to make the file for you. Clearly different pricing applies.

Then you can find labs that can output your file as a negative that you can have printed traditionally by one of the diminishing number of labs that offer a decent hand-printed black & white print service.

Finally there are a few labs that offer a hybrid solution such as using a LightJet or Lambda to print on fibre. Certainly at least one of these- Elevator Digital in Toronto- is substantially less expensive than the Las Vegas option you've been given. www.elevatordigital.ca

As I say, choosing is the hardest thing. You have a lot of options today.

"Why mess with inkjets even with pigment prints when you can have a fiber base selenium toned print?"

For one, selenium toning is not the archival process is was though to be. In fact, prints made at the recommended Kodak dilution are now starting to oxydise. So much for archivalness.

Second, once framed under glass, fiber base and archival b&w inkjet prints made with a carbon grayscale inkset on acid free 100% cotton paper are almost indistinguishable.

Here are three labs that do archival b&w inkjet printing.

http://www.diallophotography.com/digitalprintmaking/index.html

http://www.westcoastimaging.com/

http://www.cone-editions.com/