Printing - Black and White in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop Lightroom - page 253

to keep the heads of the inkjets themselves from clogging up. The glycols,
however, have a tendency to cause advanced dot gain, which basically
causes the ink to spread more rapidly across the paper surfaces. The papers
are therefore coated in a way that freezes the ink droplets in order for
the paper to receive the ink and prevent it from spreading in a controlled
manner. So inkjet surfaces are limited to papers whose surfaces have
coating rather than a natural surface. In contrast, the Iris printer embeds the
droplets of ink into the paper surfaces instead of l oating them on top of
the coatings, allowing for a much richer look and feel to the prints similar to
traditional processes.
In side by side comparative tests, Jonathan Singer of Singer Editions in
Boston, demonstrates the dif erences in shadow detail performance from
the two types of printers. He shows how he is able to get a wider tonal
range in the shadows in particular because he is able to build up dif erent
densities of black ink within the blacks. “I am attached to the print as
an object,” he said. “With the Iris I can print on natural surfaces and the
materials themselves, the way ink is embedded into the papers, the natural
surfaces, torn edges and texture, create a beautiful object in and of itself,
image withstanding”.
As these are large format very expensive printers, prints from these guns
are typically made through a service provider who knows how to use them.
The prints are exceptionally exquisite, and well worth trying one on to
see for yourself. For more information, visit Jonathan at Singer Editions,
www.singereditions.com.
4. Inkjet (or Giclee, French for i ne spray): As the most easily accessible and
readily af ordable option, many photographers are now choosing inkjet
printers. Within the inkjet option, however, there is a signii cant variety of
options and considerations for the black and white printer.
Ink
Types of ink
Dye and Pigment
Color inks can be divided into two primary types: dye-based inks and pigment-
based inks. Most non-photo specialized printers utilize dye-based inks, while
more specialized photo models tend to utilize the pigment inkjets. Most of today's
longevity issues stem from the dye-based ink sets, which typically have a brighter
color palette capacity, but tend to fade fairly quickly. Pigment inks, however,
last much longer than dye-based inks but in the past have been plagued with
neutrality issues and dii culty for the black and white photographer.
Also, in the color ink sets, the color pigments are made of various materials,
and only the black ink is carbon-based. While all pigment-based inks do
typically last much longer than dyes, the color inks (not carbon-based) do not