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MYSTERY of DPI
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RICH BENDA PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHIVAL INKSETS
Inkset: Piezography™BW Carbon-black pigment inks. Carbon-black pigment has been used by artists and photographers for centuries because of its tone, density and natural resistance to light. The chemical half-life of carbon-black is considered to be over 5000 years. I can't guarantee that your prints will last for 5000 years; but I do know that carbon black pigment is the best method of fixing an image digitally.
Quad Tone Piezography™BW meaning four different gray inks used in the traditional CMYK positions on my four-color printers; and,
Hex Tone Piezography™BW meaning four different grey inks used in the traditional CMYK positions plus additional C and M. on my six-color printers.
Why Quad Tone Ink? CMYK printers use combinations of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black inks to print color images. In theory CMY is all that is needed to print full color images including the neutral gray areas in the image. Equal amounts of CMY ink should print a neutral gray and 100% CMY should print Black. That's the theory. The reality in short is that Cyan does not mix well with Magenta and Yellow creating a muddy rendering . The fix to this problem is the addition of Black. The fix to the entire problem is Quad Tone Inks for B&W printing.
Gamut: Traditionaly the range of colors available on any particular device. I like to think that the term Dynamic Range is a more appropriate description for B&W prints. The typical range of a Silver Gelatin Print is 9 to 11 maybe 12 steps with good attention to the Zone System. For Platinum and Palladium prints the range is 50 to 70 steps the dynamic range close to that of human perception. Piezography™BW is capable of this same 50 to 70 step dynamic range.
Carbon Black Pigment-Based Inks: Pigment, unlike dye, is a powder made up of tiny granules that will not dissolve completely in solution. This means that carbon black pigment-based inks leave particles of pure carbon black bonded to the surface of the paper that they are printed on. The resulting images can thus appear very rich and physical, densely saturated. Carbon black pigment-based inks are much more resistant to UV light than dye-based inks. Images printed with archival carbon black pigment-based inks onto archival paper will last for at least 150 years if stored and exhibited under the proper conditions.
Epson UltraChrome Inkset: The Epson UltraChrome 7 color inks are a PIGMENTED inkset. Building on the technology developed for the EPSON Archival™ Ink and the EPSON DuraBright™ Ink, the UltraChrome Ink retains the advantages of high resistance to water and an impressive lightfastness rating with prints lasting up to 80 years plus providing the largest color range for pigment based inks that is now extremely close to the gamut of the popular six-color, dye-based Epson inks with more vibrant and saturated reds, oranges and yellows. This is the solution I found for printing color with professional results on my desktop.