Printer for B&W

[Moynihan]

Hello,
I am already familar with the Epson line, specifically the specs on the 3800.

But I am not familiar with HP or Canon.


I am beginning consideration of a new printer (I have an Epson R800 which is excellent for color printing).

My concern re a new one is high quality B&W in both glossy and matte, without color cast.

Require:
A4/8.5x11 only, (so a 13" or whatever width will do).
Not needing to swap out cartridges for glossy vs matte
3 or more "B&W" inks.
Pigment printer
Advanced B&W mode.

What HP and Canon ones should i study?


I have no problem with Epson as a brand, just trying to learn more so as to have a broader search.

Thanks

[madmanchan]

On HP, there's the B9180 which I believe satisfies all the criteria.

I don't know if there's a small-ish Canon printer that does.

[Paul Roark]

See http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Digital...dWhiteThePrint/ for a forum that discusses most of the B&W options, including third party options.  The primary non-OEM sellers are MIS Associates and Jon Cone's Piezo/K7 inksets -- for many Epson printers.

See http://inksupply.com/qn.cfm for an indication of the types of options there are from MIS.

For small letter size B&W, a 3800 is way overkill.  I think the best deal out there now is the Epson 1400 with one of the B&W options from these sellers.  For glossy + matte and no need to change inks, see the UT14 inkset specs.  My write-up of it is at http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/UT14.pdf  

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

[PhillyPhotographer]

For 13" I would stick with Epson. To save you time and money I would go with the new 2880.

http://www.shadesofpaper.com/product_info....products_id=273

[Moynihan]

For 13" I would stick with Epson. To save you time and money I would go with the new 2880.

One has to swap in and out the Matte Black and Photo Black, manually, on that one, right?

[neil snape]

I suppose the HP 9180 or 8850 are the printers that best fit the tasks, yet the 3800 Epson would too considering the amount of ink you get and the support on Eric's site for AWB profiles etc.
HP do well on matte papers, as good or better than any Epson, but on glossy you'll have a lot more bronzing and gloss diff than Epson. Epson still have gloss diff but little bronzing.
What I do like about the HP is playing with scraps or cut offs of different paper, switching at anytime from photo to matte media. Once you are used to this it's hard to want to accept the ink purges, even with the auto switch on the 3800 using little ink nor time.

[Geoff Wittig]

I suppose the HP 9180 or 8850 are the printers that best fit the tasks, yet the 3800 Epson would too considering the amount of ink you get and the support on Eric's site for AWB profiles etc.
HP do well on matte papers, as good or better than any Epson, but on glossy you'll have a lot more bronzing and gloss diff than Epson. Epson still have gloss diff but little bronzing.
What I do like about the HP is playing with scraps or cut offs of different paper, switching at anytime from photo to matte media. Once you are used to this it's hard to want to accept the ink purges, even with the auto switch on the 3800 using little ink nor time.

HP's Vivera ink printers have a few very nice features; their black & white mode is absolutely dead solid neutral, without even a ghost of color cast in the black/grey inks. You can add some toning in the printer driver if you wish, but the native black & white prints use only the three (or four on some papers with the Z3100) black/grey inks otherwise. Epson instead has the default reddish-brown tone of carbon pigment in their black/grey inks; as a result, even the ABW mode adds back some colored ink dots to neutralize that cast. This makes prints from the Epsons a bit more prone to metamerism and differential fading. I've made hundreds of black & white prints on an Epson 7600 using Roy Harrington's QuadTone RIP, with an Epson 2400 using its native ABW mode, and with an HP Z3100. The HP prints simply look better.

In addition, HP's matte black ink produces a visibly darker d-max on matte paper compared to the Epson K3 printers. This is a bit ironic considering the HP's evident weakness in red saturation on matte papers, but for black & white on cotton rag they do give a darker black.

[PhillyPhotographer]

One has to swap in and out the Matte Black and Photo Black, manually, on that one, right?

Yes but there's next to no waste since the ink cartridge sits on the head and there's no lines to clean.

[GKN]

The Canon 9500 would be a good option - no need to swap matt and gloss blacks. I have used canned profiles and got good neutral B&W prints. It's a pigment printer and has a light grey ink