Gear

Seeing The World As Black-And-White

A new breed of inkjet printers is lighting the way for a resurgence in top-quality black-and-white printing from a desktop darkroom

B&W Inks
Advanced color precision delivers neutral black-and-white prints
By Dikla Kadosh

Black-and-white photographs are like a great pair of jeans—they never go out of style. You can print your own gorgeous black-and-white photographs that rival those produced in professional labs without leaving your home or office. Advances in printer technology have made inkjet printers faster, more precise and more sophisticated, and with a set of specialty black-and-white inks, you can produce quality archival photos on the same inkjet printer you use for color prints.

Media Street recently introduced an archival black-and-white inkjet solution that gives you all the tools you need to create dazzling prints worthy of a museum gallery or at least the dining room wall. The package includes a set of Generations QuadBlack pigment inks, an assortment of photographic and fine-art papers, and software to guide you through the process. The variable-tone inks allow you to make cold, warm, neutral or platinum prints with just a few quick selections. Even with a standard photo printer, such as the Epson Stylus Photo R200, this complete system makes it as easy to print in black-and-white as it is in color.

InkjetMall provides two options for printing the highest-quality archival black-and-white photos with Epson printers. Piezography® BW ICC is a system of monochromatic inks and media profiles that automates the process and ensures the best possible results. The PiezoTone inks are pigment inks designed for users who require the absolute greatest available longevity and monochromatic color stability. PiezoTones are available in Warm Neutral, Selenium Tone, Carbon Sepia and Cool Neutral gray sets. The iQuads system utilizes the same PiezoTone inks and features customized printer profiles made specifically for your printer, environment and printing goals.

For black-and-white images with tonal gradations that match traditional silver-halide prints, Lyson offers its Daylight Darkroom system. The Lyson archival inks come in a set of six or seven black inks, varying in intensity and replacing the normal CMYK colors in a standard photo printer. You can choose between a cool, neutral or warm tone to get the look you want. The Daylight Darkroom imaging system incorporates inks, printing software and Lyson media for a total package that produces stunning results.

Resources

InkjetMall, (888) 426-6323, www.inkjetmall.com

Lyson, (847) 690-1060, www.lyson.com

Media Street, (888) 633-4295, www.mediastreet.com

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