PCPhoto
Printing PleasuresExperience the joy of photography with the latest in inkjet printers and papers |
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Page 3 of 5 Epson’s UltraChrome K3 inks add three shades of black, rather than red and green inks, to its new printers. Not only does this achieve better color fidelity, but it also produces black-and-white prints that rival traditional silver-based prints. The photo black or matte black inks are complemented with a light black and a light, light black ink, which results in much better gray balance and accurately portrays gradual shifts in tone, a quality that’s essential for superior black-and-white prints. Hewlett-Packard’s Vivera inks add three gray inks and bring improved archival quality to its line of inkjet printers. As well as delivering impressive monochromatic prints, these inks produce a high-gloss finish on glossy paper that makes both color and black-and-white prints pop. The inks’ resistance to fading from exposure to light and pollutants also has been significantly improved, resulting in prints than can last for decades. In fact, the inks from all these manufacturers have improved when it comes to lightfastness, or the ability of a print to resist fading. It’s important to remember that a print’s longevity is impacted by a variety of factors, including the paper and how it’s exhibited. If your prints are destined to hang on a wall, use archival mattes and UV-resistant glass. If the print is left unprotected and exposed to direct sunlight, its days as a pristine example of your photography are numbered. Resolutions And Ink Delivery One of the specifications that’s overhyped is an inkjet printer’s resolution. Although higher resolution on a digital camera means larger prints, higher resolution on an inkjet printer doesn’t result in a better print. In fact, printers with resolutions beyond 2,880 dpi (dots per inch) are more successful in using up ink than they are in actually producing a visibly superior print. The reason is that our eyes have difficulty differentiating between prints produced beyond a certain resolution. More important than resolution is the manner in which the inks are delivered to the paper surface. Measured in picoliters (a trillionth of a liter), these ultra-small droplets create those continuous-tone prints that we all crave. Droplet sizes have been reduced to as small as 1.5 picoliters. Printers that deliver droplets in sizes of four picoliters and less produce more controlled and natural transitions between colors and tones.
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