I favor 100% carbon pigments for a number of reasons. Whenever color inks are part of the B&W mix, artifacts and the risk of faster fade and differential fade, both from light and gas attack, compromise the image. Additionally, high gamut color inks are harder to profile and more sensitive to paper and ink batch variations. With a single pigment type, profiles are more portable among papers. Simple re-linearization is often all that is needed for a new paper.

As shown above, the color tones of carbon pigment prints can cover a wide range. For more on the above print tones, click here.

While I have favored 100% carbon printing for the most lightfast and stable fine art prints, the best of the blended color + carbon systems are performing very well in the Aardenburg Imaging & Archives fade testing, which is the best and most detailed available to us. For most uses and users, the top quality blended inks will be fine. If I need a cool, blended ink, the Hewlett Packard Z3100 neutralized PK is the one I now use and is the only blended carbon-color ink I recommend for fine art printing. Still, however, one can expect about twice the delta e -- a measure of the total change in density and color -- in HP PK prints when compared to those make with Eboni carbon.

Most of the inksets discussed here are available through MIS Associates, with whom I have no formal connection. Some of the inksets are open-source and can be mixed by users, and some use Hewlett Packard Z3100 Vivera Photo Black pigments that are widely available. These inksets are suitable for a number of Epson inkjet printer models.

My current inkset approach uses MIS Eboni matte black, including its dilutions, as well as MIS K4 warm carbon inks, which can print sepia tones on glossy paper. I use HP PK in the 1400 for neutral glossy printing of my gallery brochures. See http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Carbon-BW-2010.pdf for an early draft of my 2010 inkset mix.

The main change from last year's approach is moving to the MIS warm carbon, replacing the HP PK based inks in the 7800 entirely. I found I did not use the 7800 cool glossy inks at all. The new Epson Hot Press paper prints so neutrally with Eboni that the HP PK is simply not needed for what I consider essentially neutral prints on non-brightened (no-OBAs) paper. On the other hand, the warm carbon inks are very useful, and will be the main ones I use in an upcoming museum historic photo display. (For the 2009 inksets, see 7800-EbHp.pdf and Eb1400.pdf.

There is no 100% carbon pigment that is totally neutral. Most are warm, but MIS Eboni MK, particularly on specific papers, can be near neutral. Paper choice is the primary variable. On glossy paper, carbon pigments are very warm -- into the "sepia" tone range.

For a more neutral print than carbon can make, inkset designers use color pigments to cool down the carbon. These color pigments might be blended into the ink mix. But, as noted above, the use of colorants with the carbon introduces a number of problems. As such, I print my fine art with 100% carbon and vary the print tone simply by selecting the paper that gives the tone I want.

At some point -- and we may be there with the best inksets -- the paper becomes the limiting factor in image longevity. In this regard, Arches uncoated watercolor paper may be the best there is. It has stood the test of time, having been used by artists for about 500 years. The lack of a coating makes it harder to print on, but there is no coating to flake off or crack. It can even be washed. On the other hand, it is harder to print on, and we have no good fade tests that show whether images on it are as permanent. "Carbon on cotton" defines, in my view, the paradigm for fine art and archival B&W printing.

For more information on carbon printing stabililty, click here.

Epson R800 and R1800 -- The First Photo Quality Black-Only Approach

For more information on this 1800 "3-MK" workflow, click here. See also the February 2008 issue of Shutterbug magazine, reproduced here.

Although I have not tested the 1900 with this workflow, it should work very well.

The 1800 3-MK approach and profiles can be ported to the Epson 1400 rather easily by anyone who knows how to re-linearize QTR profiles.

The 1400, with several inksets, appears to bring top notch 13" wide printing to a more affordable level, and it is now my primary printer, except, of course, where the 13 inch wide paper limit is too small. See my Epson 1400 PDF for my current top desktop recommendation.

Eboni-6 Inkset -- For Smooth 100% Carbon Pigment Prints from Most Epson Printers

MIS sells the dilute Eboni both in bottles and in pre-loaded Epson 1400 cartridges.

Note that, while all pigment inksets settle with time, dilute Eboni settles somewhat faster than most. This settling can result in inconsistent print densities, but it has not resulted in clogging. In desktop units, where the carts are agitated continuously during printing, this is not an issue. With dilute Eboni in wide format printers, the carts must be agitated manually for consistent densities. Wide format "K2" and newer carts are easy to remove and agitate.

For details on the "Eboni-6" 100% carbon pigment inkset, click here. Eboni-based inksets have been used by me for about 4 years and been the most clog-free inksets I've ever used.

For information on my current direction with Eboni-6/Carbon-6 in my Epson 7800 (typical K3 printer) and 1400 (typical 1.5 picoliter printer) click here.

For the C88+ version of Eboni-6 and Carbon-6, click here. A C88+ with Carbon-6 is about the least expensive and easiest to care for B&W printer possible. And the images are 100% carbon pigment; so they'll have state-of-the-art stability. Just remember to agitate the CIS if one is used. My non-technical daughter is in her second trouble-free year at college with a C88+ and CIS with C6 "EZ" in it -- all year on a single initial fill.

The same "C6" clear dilution base and approach appear to work well with the HP Z3100/3200 PK pigments. This approach can be used to make a variety of inksets, including the dilute neutral gray inks that are glossy and matte compatible.

The C6 inkset base is composed of just a few common, readily available, economical, and safe materials. Because the cost of the dilution base is so low, the cost of the dilute inks can be very low even when relatively expensive inks are used in the mix. This is because dilute inks are mostly just water.

These inksets must be considered experimental. So far, I have seen no problems with these inksets that relates to the C6 bases I describe. The C6 diluted inks I've used have been the most clog free inks I've used, including OEM dye-based inks.

For details on these inksets and user mixing, click here.

The dilute Eboni inksets discussed above can be printed with either the Epson driver or QTR. In my view, the most convenient workflow for Windows users includes an easy to make ICC in the Photoshop or Elements Print Preview. For a tutorial on making B&W ICCs with a flatbed scanner, click here.

This list includes some inksets that I would not now recommend for fine art printing, but they have been very well received by the vast majority of users.

A brief description of how I use the DataColor/ColorVision PrintFixPro/Spyder spectro,

Modified bottom fill adapter for priming carts and access to Epson large format carts for inks and refilling,

Washing Arches watercolor paper,

Possible way to hold printer chips in place without the need for a cartridge,

Large format 100% carbon-pigment prints in Epson K2 printers to match R1800 Eboni prints,

Printing 100% Eboni carbon B&W plus color with the R800 and R1800,

QTR, 2200, 4K+, Matte BW, Carbon & general monotone inkset curve profiling,

(The most recent QTR workflow notes, above, are now my prefered approach and what I'd recommend to the extent they use different settings than the notes below.)

QTR, 2200, 4K+Ccm, Matte BW profiling

Sample 4K+, IJC, Split-tone profiling

Embedding Curves into ICCs

Fine Tuning the Dmax.pdf

Making B&W ICCs with a Flatbed Scanner and Gray Card

Photoshop Elements

Selected Canon (and comparison) lens MTF curves

Paul's Gallery and General Home Page

Paul Roark
Solvang, CA, USA
www.PaulRoark.com