Whatever. It is used, perhaps incorrectly, by the B&W community to describe the issues I referenced. Call it whatever you want. How about "problem x"?
Case in point. It appears that anyone who disagrees with your rather weak arguments must somehow be affiliated with Epson. You affiliated with HP or Canon?
Not at all. I merely asked a question because the tone of response was so blinkered away from alternatives to Epson products. No I am not affiliated with HP or Canon. As noted above, I use an Epson. If I were affiliated with HP or Canon I might well use their products but I am not and I don't. I would have thought that relatively clear.
Guys, you seem to be getting your knickers in a twist and so vehemently opposed to anyone who suggests that Epson's product offering is lacking in any way. I have merely made a few basic statements which I will repeat once more for clarity:
- Epson ABW is no more a "black box" than any other driver
- QTR Create ICC isn't a "hack"; it improves the output of Epson ABW (and any other B&W printing workflow whether involving an Epson printer, HP, Canon or otherwise) and is available to anyone with a densitometer or spectrophotometer. We should be thankful it's available. It's progress. It allows us to use those aspects of colour management we care most about in B&W printing. To call it a "hack", particularly when you are involved in colour management as a profession is not only disappointing but, frankly, puzzling.
- another example of improving Epson ABW beyond the Epson package is to use third party papers. Very simply, there are papers out there that are better than those provided by Epson. That's good for us users.
- the improvement of B&W printing quality should be encouraged and not discouraged. The OEM solutions are ok for some but lacking for many also. We should encourage manufacturers to keep improving their products. We should also encourage other third party vendors of software, ink and paper to continue to provide solutions that can enhance the OEM solutions.
I think Epson ABW is a fantastically convenient product. I use it (as I have said many times). I like that it deploys LK and LLK alongside K and that it dramatically reduces the use of Y, M and C. I like that I get a decent B&W solution and a colour solution in one box. I dropped using dedicated B&W ink sets when it came out - I made a decision to sacrifice a degree of quality for convenience. (If I had the time and space I would prefer to run a dedicated B&W ink set because I have seen the quality that it can produce.) With very little effort, I do, though, address some of Epson ABW's shortcomings by using QTR Create ICC and third party papers. I don't discourage people from adopting such enhancements. I encourage people to explore options and demand more from the out-of-the-box offering. Were it not for people doing so ABW wouldn't exist. Hopefully Epson and the colour management community will continue to improve on the offering.
Ciao.