[filmscanners] Re: OT - Epson 1270 ink "monitor"...

["Arthur Entlich" <artistic-1@shaw.ca>]

The backlighted product is a pastic backing (which becomes teh front,
you print mirror image) and a very absorbant white surface (which
becomes the back).  This surface traps a lot of ink in it.  The
resolution is relatively poor as a result, but, since the product
requires light from behind, the image would easily get washed out, so it
needs a lot of ink (not to mention most backlighted film is lighted with
fluorescent fixtures which have UV, so they fade).

Sicne I don;t own a 1280 or any 6 color printer, I can't comment
absolutely, but I tested two 4 color machines, using an image whcih had
a good variety of ink combinations and densities, printing all on teh
same bond paper.  The results I got (using my eye, not a densitometer)
were that the lowest ink use was transparency film (which was maximum
360 dpi at the time) followed by glossy film, at 720 or 1440 dpi, then
plain paper at 720-1440 dpi, then photo paper, then photo inkjet paper,
etc...

There are now many more profiles then when I did the tests.  I find it
interesting that the heavy weight matte uses so little ink, relatively,
but it may be because of the way the paper is coated prior the ink
receptive coating.  I suspect the paper provides the majority of the
thickness with a fairly thin receptive coating, even thinner than the
photo ink jet papers.  I've never have used the heavy matte, but now I'm
intreged...

Art

Bob Shomler wrote:

> Following is text from figure 9.15 on page 262 of Harald Johnson's new book

"Mastering Digital Printing" that reports a test of ink amounts as a function

of media type setting.  It does seem like film media would take less ink due to

its nonabsorptive surface, unless Ink Jet Back Light Film has an absorptive or

somewhat porous print side surface.


>
>  The same test strip of RGB black (0R, 0G, 0B) in equal gradient steps
>  [was] printed with an EPSON 1280 on the same paper (EPSON Premium Glossy
>  Photo Paper) at 1440 dpi with exactly the same settings, except that the
>  Media Type was changed for each.  ... the selections are Matte Paper
>  Heavyweight, Premium Glossy Photo Paper, Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper,
>  Plain Paper, Photo Paper, and Ink Jet Back Light Film.  The Matte Paper
>  Heavyweight setting applied the least amount of ink, and the Photo Paper
>  or Ink Jet Back Light Film settings applied the most.
>
> Bob Shomler
> www.shomler.com
>
>
>>>I am not sure the heavyweight matte setting uses the least
>>>ink.  My experience is that the plain paper, glossy FILM (not
>>>glossy or photo paper), or transparency mode use less.
>>>
>
>>The glossy papers use a lot of ink.  I'm referring to the Glossy FILM
>>option, and the transparency FILM option.  These are plastic with a thin
>>receiving layer.  They cannot handle much ink, because they cannot
>>absorb it, due to the plastic film substrate.
>>
>



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe by mail to listserver@halftone.co.uk, with 'unsubscribe 
filmscanners'
or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or 
body