Re: Thinking of switching to Generations Enhanced: Opinions

["Moreno Polloni" <mp@dccnet.com>]

<x-charset iso-8859-1>> I'm beginning to run out of patience with CPiezo. I love this ink when I
can
> print with it, but am beginning to find it too unreliable after using it
in
> both a 1200 cart and a 1280 CIS. If my present problems don't sort out and
> the system doesn't stabilize within a day or so, I will switch (at least
> until Jon gets the kinks out).
>
> I know many of you are printing with Generations Enhanced. Is delivery to
a
> 1280 via CIS relatively troublefree? What about metamarism in the 6-ink
> color set? what about gamut?

I'm in the same boat as you. Same printer, same problems. I started with
Generations, but was never really happy with how the prints looked in
daylight. In tungsten light, the colours pop, but in daylight, they look a
bit washed out, and metamerism rears it's ugly head. This isn't a problem if
your images have bright saturated colours, or if your portrait subjects
enjoy looking like Martians.

I printed some samples of the same portrait image using Gen4 inks on one
print, and Cone colours/Gen4 black on another. The colours were carefully
matched under tungsten light, and they were close enough that you couldn't
tell them apart from a few week. In daylight, skintones on the Gen4 print
displayed splotches of green and yellow. Skintones on the Cone colour/Gen4
black print shifted slightly to pink, which was perfectly acceptable. For
all I know, if I had used the Cone black, there may not have been any colour
shifting at all.

I'd give the nod to the Cone inks for colours, but their black is weak with
the papers I use (EAM, EWC, and Museo). The Gen4 black is about as black as
it gets, and this gives the Gen4 prints more depth and body. I've tried
mixing the Gen4 black and the Cone colours. This is a compromise I could
live with, if the Cone inks would work properly with my 1280.

I've never really paid much attention to metamerism before, but now it's
going to weigh in as a major factor for any inkset I end up using.

The only other pigmented ink option I'm aware of are the MIS Archival inks.
Does anyone have any experience with these? I'd be really interested
comparisons to the Gen4 inks with regards to metamerism.

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