I Wonder if Gloss Differential w/pigment inks will ever be solved

[Pete JF]

Via paper structure..inks, etc..

There are printers that apply a 'clear coat' of something to kill the differential, no??

Any improvements lately in dye based printers/inks..longevity issues..fading issues due to humidity or light etc?

I've lost track of this stuff..

[Tim Lookingbill]

Frankly, with all the trouble and odd behaviors I've read about or encountered myself over the years with inkjets of any size, make or model, I would welcome the use of digital or offset commercial presses that don't use established industrial inkjet ink be it dye or pigment.

All you have to do to see how good these printers really are is to just take a gander at all the magazine racks at your local big box store. No weird visual print artifacts. I can do without the expanded color gamut of inkjet over the predictability of commercial press output any day.

CopyCraft (now the Slate Group) in Lubbock Tx still uses 300 line halftone dot printers on Komori presses. Gorgeous color.

http://slategroup.com/offset-printing/

Excuse my rant. I'm really beginning to hate inkjet printers of all varieties.

[David Sutton]

Not just half-tone printers. Have you seen what a Frontier laser printer or similar can do on Fuji deep matte paper?  Can't get anywhere near it on a pigment inkjet.
Never mind. For those of us who think photography is about making prints we manage with what we've got. At least I don't have to use a darkroom. Can't say how happy that makes me.

Back to the OP. There are usually improvements if you've got the money to upgrade your printer every year or two. Gloss differential goes away if you control the maximum white point of the file via a threshold layer in your image editor. Similarly for most other problems. Or use a good matte paper like Somerset Museum Rag and the treat the surface to get the sort of sheen you have in mind. Easier in the long run than changing printers unless it's your business.
David

[NAwlins_Contrarian]

There are printers that apply a 'clear coat' of something to kill the differential, no??

I think you're referring to what Epson calls gloss optimizer and Canon calls chroma optimizer. Among current and recent models, I think the Epson R2000 and P400 and the Canon Pro-1, Pro-10, and Pro-1000 have it.

Any improvements lately in dye based printers/inks..longevity issues..fading issues due to humidity or light etc?

The Canon Pro-100 supposedly makes long-lasting prints (only) when using Canon ChromaLife inks on several different Canon papers. The estimates seem to be that such prints are likely to last at least as well as, and probably better than, good conventional wet prints (RA-4 process on Fuji Chrystal Archive paper).

[Pete JF]

Interesting thoughts..Mostly i'm left wanting so much more with pigment base inks.

I've been going through all of my own work and organizing prints the last week or so, etc..pulled out some dye based prints from a long time ago (i forget what printer, epson for sure) and
was really enjoying looking them..they've been in the dark 100% and still look good..just great to revisit prints that satisfy me so much more than
the pigment stuff..it always feels like, sorta 'not quite there' to me with regard to pigment ink..lack of depth, differential bugs me..etc..

[henrikolsen]

I have previously noted here on the forum that at least Canson's rather new Prestige paper turned out much better than the rest I've tried with the Canon Pro-1000 OEM ink set. Way better than Hahnemühle Silk Baryta for instance. Whatever they did, it's working really well.

I've praised them for the improvement and asked if same coating change (or whatever they did) will turn up soon in other paper variants, but no answer from them.