Printing in Black and White with Epson P800

[aebolzan]

I started with the Epson P800 making some prints...now I have a doubt: is there any problem when print alternatively color and black and white?. I mean: am I wasting ink in any way?...Is it better to run separated  B&W and color sessions?

I am now installing Qimage for printing (raw images processed in Capture One 13.1.1)  and I read somewhere that for B&W it would be advisable to let the printer to manage the color and not the software with the corresponding icc; is that so?

Thanks in advance....

Agustin

[digitaldog]

You should be playing with the Epson Advanced B&W mode.
Maybe look into Epson Print Layout (free) since it provides this mode with actual soft proofing.

[Jeffrey Saldinger]

Agustin, where you ask about "wasting ink in any way," you may be thinking about how the P800 handles switching from Photo Black to Matte Black for different media, where some ink is consumed that is not actually used to make a print. In my own work I switch whenever I need to, and in any case do the switch weekly anyway in order to keep the mechanism for switching between PK and MK from becoming "stuck," which I have been told can happen.

I print a color gamut test chart virtually every day, just to keep everything flowing nicely (sorry, this is not the technical term; perhaps others will care to comment on this), and have never had reason to think my BW printing was affected by this. The Advanced B&W mode uses a small amount of color.

[digitaldog]

I can go months without printing on my P800, in a very dry environment, no clogs if that's a concern.
Advance B&W actually uses less ink than trying to print B&W without (there's certainly no yellow used) and better, you can get dead nuts neutrals if that's a goal.

[aebolzan]

Let's see... the Epson P800 comes with 4 black cartridges:  Photo Black, Matte Black, Light Black and Light Light Black.  The use of them depends on the paper I use, right?...if I am using a Rag Matte paper I guess the Photo is not used and if I use a Baryta Glossy (or any other gloss paper), the Matte is not use, right? or am I wrong?....or the switch of blacks depends on if the image is printed as "color" or if it is printed as "B&W"?....I am trying now different papers (Canson: Rag, Etching and Platine, Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Satin, Silk Baryta and Photo Rag) in order to see which one goes better with my style...

[digitaldog]

All depends on the Media settings for the paper. Generally matte papers, Matte black ink, glossy papers, Photo Black Ink but each paper should  provide a media setting recommendation and a resulting black ink. 

[FabienP]

Let's see... the Epson P800 comes with 4 black cartridges:  Photo Black, Matte Black, Light Black and Light Light Black.  The use of them depends on the paper I use, right?...if I am using a Rag Matte paper I guess the Photo is not used and if I use a Baryta Glossy (or any other gloss paper), the Matte is not use, right? or am I wrong?....or the switch of blacks depends on if the image is printed as "color" or if it is printed as "B&W"?....I am trying now different papers (Canson: Rag, Etching and Platine, Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Satin, Silk Baryta and Photo Rag) in order to see which one goes better with my style...

Yes, that's right, provided you have selected the right paper type in the printer driver. The printer can't detect which paper type you are using so the correct type needs to be selected in the driver.

As Andrew says, there are exceptions, but this is the general rule.

Cheers,
Fabien

[Eric Brody]

If you want to learn what an Epson printer can do with black and white, look into QTR, (Quad Tone RIP), a printer driver by Roy Harrington. It's free to try, and should you like it the cost is a very modest $50.00 It is a very deep product but I've been using it at a relatively simple level (I don't make my own curves) for many years and love the tonalities it produces. I also use DXO-Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 (not free but there's a trial), and in that product there is a world of toning possibilities though I personally prefer QTR.

I believe the printer uses whatever color or monochrome ink it needs to produced the color or tones in the image. Black and white likely uses fewer colors but not none. There's another entire world of black and white using QTR and specialty carbon inks but that is more than I'm willing to take on.

Have fun. As my mentor Charlie Cramer says, "It's art, there are no wrong answers."