While the inkset is currently for the 1280 family only, I intend to port it to the 2200 and 4000. While tests are still ongoing, it appears to run well on the 1290.

There are two general procedures for printing the UT2 inkset. Any application can be used to print tones from neutral to medium warm by just using the standard Epson print driver. With image editors Photoshop and Picture Window more control is possible, including print tones that range from dark sepia to very cold. The settings for these two printing methods are in separate sections below.

UT2 is compatible with both matte and glossy (also called .barrier. or .RC.) papers. However, for matte paper, Eboni black ink should be used.

For glossy papers, Photo black ink must be used if the print is made using just the Epson driver. However, if Photoshop or Picture Window are used, image adjustment curves files are available that allow printing a number of popular glossy papers with either Photo black (K) or Eboni matte K. The Photo K ink will give slightly deeper blacks, but it is doubtful viewers will be able to see the difference.

INK POSITIONS

The UT2 inkset uses predominantly carbon pigments. The magenta and light magenta ink positions use un-toned carbon pigments, which gives a warm print tone. The cyan and light cyan positions are carbon pigments toned cold with cyan and magenta pigments. No dyes are used in this inkset, so all images will be very fade resistant.

The yellow-position ink is sepia. This ink is composed of 84% UT2 light magenta, 8% MIS 7600 yellow and 8% MIS 7600 magenta. Because there are many different sepia tones, this position is one where some users might want to mix a custom sepia tone, varying the ratios of the yellow and magenta. It is also a position where different custom ink tones could be placed and controlled in the inkset by using the Light and Dark Sepia curves or modifications of them. The inkset would still be able to print traditional neutral/"selenium" to warm/carbon tones via RGB curves that essentially cut the yellow-position toner out of the mix.

SLIDER CONTROLS – Printing from any Application

Because the inkset can be controlled by the Epson driver, excellent B&W images can be printed from any application, such as Word or page-layout programs.

All of the necessary settings can be made when a person starts to print a file, clicking on "File" (in the top bar) and then "Print" in most applications. In the printer driver, one first clicks on Properties;. then Custom. and Advanced. That gets to a box that contains all of the settings needed.

These are the recommended settings for best grayscale file printing: (Note, you must start with a grayscale image)

Media Type settings vary with the paper being used, but the best ones to use are not necessarily what Epson calls for in the driver. These settings are listed below by paper type.

Print Quality - 1440 dpi is generally good enough. If it is rough, uncheck "High Speed." This is often almost as good as and much faster than 2880.

Color Management -

• Set Mode to Vivid;   Automatic works if the sliders are in the neutral or "0" position, but Vivid is better when the sliders are used.

• Slider Settings vary with paper type and are listed by paper.

• In general, with all the sliders in the neutral or "0" position, the print will be slightly warm.

• Adding "Cyan" (the cool ink) by moving the Cyan slider to the right cools the print, removing cyan warms the print.

• Adding "Magenta" (the pure carbon, warm ink) or "Yellow" (sepia tone) warms the print.

These are the recommended starting points for some popular papers to achieve the indicated tone. There are many other alternatives with the sliders. However, large moves of the sliders may negatively affect the print quality.

Note that the "neutral" tone of this inkset is often referred to as "selenium" tone because it matches the tone of a lightly-selenium-toned silver print.

Matte Paper use Eboni Black Ink	Media Setting	Slider Settings
		Neutral Prints	Warm Prints
Epson Enhance Matte ("EEM") These settings will probably work for a number of matte papers.	Heavyweight Matte	C +6 M -5 Y   0 Con 0 Br 0	C -15 M +10 Y +25 Con 0 Br 0
Hahnamuhle PhotoRag	Heavyweight Matte	C +10 M -10 Y  0 Con 0 Br 0 (Neutral midtones cold shadows)	C -15 M +10 Y +25 Con 0 Br 0
Epson UltraSmooth	Heavyweight Matte	C +6 M -5 Y  0 Con 0 Br 0	C -15 M +10 Y +25 Con 0 Br 0

Glossy Paper use Photo Black Ink	Media Setting	Slider Settings
		Neutral Prints	Warm Prints
Epson Glossy Photo paper (aka Epson Photo Paper SO41141) To darken the midtones and for a full tonal scale: Br -6, Con -6	Heavyweight Matte ("Glossy Photo Paper" or "Photo Paper" are ok only when the sliders are set to zero).	C +5 M -5 Y  0 Con -3 Br 0	C -15 M +10 Y +25 Con 0 Br 0
Premium Semi gloss Photo Paper (PSG) To lighten print: Brightness +5 These settings work with Premium Glossy and Premium Luster, but not Premium Semi-matte. (Highlights are a little lighter than the target densities.)	Premium Glossy Photo Paper	C +7 M -7 Y  0 Con -3 Br +10	C -15 M +10 Y +25 Con -2 Br +12
Epson Photo Quality Glossy Paper (Contrast -5 might help open up shadows.)	Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper	C +5 M -5 Y  0 Con 0 Br 0	C -15 M +10 Y +25 Con 0 Br 0
Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl & Glossy (This would be the starting recommendation for other thin photo papers such as Photo Quality Ink Jet paper.)	Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper	C +5 M -5 Y  0 Con 0 Br 0	C -15 M +10 Y +25 Con 0 Br 0

IMAGE EDITOR ADJUSTMENT CURVES

The UT2 inkset was designed to give a very good B&W image by printing a grayscale file (not a color image) There are many ways to convert color images to grayscale. Use a technique that does not cause pixel data to be lost in the conversion.

The print tones can be changed, not only with the sliders, but also by using Photoshop Image Adjustment Curves (which also work in the Picture Window image editor - see www.dl-c.com ).

(Picture Window is a good, affordable image editor that can be used instead of the industry-standard, but relatively expensive, Photoshop program. See Digital Light and Color for Picture Window, at www.dl-c.com. Older versions of PW will not read the PS CS curve files. Anyone who has purchased version 3.5 has free access to maintenance releases, and the next maintenance release which will be issued in mid-January will support the new Photoshop ACV format.)

Controlling the print tones with image adjustment curves gives more control than the sliders and has some other advantages for experienced printers. Which curve is applied determines the mix of inks and thus the tone of the print.

For this approach the working grayscale file must first be changed to an RGB color image for printing. (I do not save or work with these large RGB files.) In Photoshop, set the RGB working space to AdobeRGB(1998). (Edit, Color settings I set the top setting to Photoshop 5 Defaults and then change RGB working space to Adobe RGB (1998).) The Picture Window default color setting works fine. For some curves, particularly the stronger sepia curves, it is best to have the RGB file in 16 bit mode before the tone curve is applied. This is true even if the grayscale file was an 8 bit file.

In the driver the following settings are used:

• Media Type "Photo Paper" works well for most, but this can vary with paper type.

• Print Quality 1440, High Speed unchecked, works well for most prints; 2880 gives marginally better quality but is slow. For glossy papers one might see the difference.

• Color Management - No Color Adjustment. Because the No Color Adjustment setting is used, the curves should work equally well with both Windows and Mac computers.

The "carbon" tone curves print warm, about half way to a sepia tone. Some people compare its visual impact to the classical platinum print. The curves essentially eliminate all the color pigments and print with only carbon. This gives the most lightfast print possible, because the carbon pigments are more stable than the color pigments.

"Carbon on cotton" (acid-free & buffered paper) is such an appealing visual and archival medium that it can, in my view, stand on its own as a classic B&W medium.

Using curves to control tones also allows one to make split-tone prints by using one curve in one selected area and another curve in the other part of the image.

With the sepia and carbon curves the image may be improved by converting the RGB file to 16 bits before applying the tone curve.

The curves are currently for the 1280 only, and are listed by paper type.

MATTE PAPERS (Use with Eboni black ink.)

Epson Enhanced Matte (EEM): Media Type: "Photo Paper." (These curves will probably work well with many matte papers.)

UT2-EEM-Neutral-1
UT2-EEM-Carbon-1

There are 2 sepia curves for EEM. One is lighter (less sepia) than the other. For the Dark Sepia curve, the print will be smoother if the RGB file is converted to 16 bit before the curve is applied.

The EEM Dark Sepia curve is the one that should be used by custom mixers to control custom mixes put in the yellow position.

PhotoRag Media Type: "Photo Paper."

UT2-PhotoRag-Neutral-1
UT2-PhotoRag-Carbon-1
UT2-PhotoRag-Sepia-1 (Use 16 bit; there is only one sepia curve.)

Epson UltraSmooth (aka Scrapbook, PremierArt Hot Press): Media Type: "Photo Paper."

UT2-UltraSmooth-Neutral-1
UT2-UltraSmooth-Carbon-1
UT2-UltraSmooth-Sepia-1 (Convert RGB file to 16 bit before applying)

GLOSSY PAPERS – WITH EBONI BLACK INK

The UT2 inkset does allow one to print on glossy papers even when Eboni ink is in the printer. However, special curves must be applied. They will all contain the word “Eboni” in the name of the curve.

Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl & Glossy papers: Media Type: "Photo Quality Glossy Film."

UT2-IlfordSmooth-Eboni-Neutral-1
UT2-IlfrodSmooth-Eboni-Carbon-1
UT2-IlfordSmooth-Eboni-Sepia-1
UT2=IlfordSmooth-Eboni-DarkSepia-1 (Convert RGB to 16 bit before applying curve.)

Ilford Smooth Pearl provides one of the best images and deepest blacks of any paper. The paper has an appropriately thick base but is not archival, being rated by Ilford at 30 years. It is an excellent value if 30 years is a long enough paper life.

Epson Premium Semigloss, Glossy and Luster Photo Papers: Media Type: "Photo Paper."

UT2-PremSemiGloss-Eboni-Neutral-1
UT2-PremSemiGloss-Eboni-Carbon-1
UT2-PremSemiGloss-Eboni-Sepia-1
UT2-PremSemiGloss-Eboni-DarkSepia-1 (Convert RGB file to 16 bit before applying curve.)

(These curves do not work on Premium Semimatte.)

Epson Glossy Photo Paper (also known as “Photo Paper”): Media Type: "Photo Paper."

UT2-GlossyPP-Eboni-Neutral-1
UT2-GlossyPP-Eboni-Carbon-1
UT2-GlossyPP-Eboni-Sepia-1 (Convert mode to 16 bit RGB before applying curve.)

Note, this widely-available and modestly priced paper produces a very good image, with few if any differential reflection issues such “bronzing.” However, it is not archival, and some like a thicker feeling paper.

GLOSSY PAPERS (Use with Photo Black ink.)

Epson Glossy Photo Paper (also known as Epson Photo Paper): Media Type: "Photo Paper."

UT2-GlossyPP-Neutral-1
UT2-GlossyPP-Carbon-1
UT2-GlossyPP-Sepia-1 - There is only one sepia curve for this paper.

Note, this widely-available and modestly priced paper produces a very good image, with few if any differential reflection issues. However, it is not archival, and some like a thicker feeling paper.

These curves also work reasonably well on Epson Photo Quality Glossy Paper, which is thinner than Glossy Photo Paper, has a lower dmax and less smoothness.

Ilford Gallerie Smooth & Glossy papers: Media Type: "Photo Quality Glossy Film."

UT2-IlfordSmooth-Neutral-1
UT2-IlfrodSmooth-Carbon-1
UT2-IlfordSmooth-Sepia-1
UT2=IlfordSmooth-DarkSepia-1 (Convert RGB to 16 bit before applying curve.)

Ilford Smooth Pearl provides one of the best images and deepest blacks of any paper. It has some reflective differentials which can be reduced significantly with a spray like PremierArt Image Shield or Lyson Print Guard.

The paper has an appropriately thick base but is not archival, being rated by Ilford at 30 years. It is an excellent value if 30 years is a long enough paper life.

These curves and settings work with the 1280 and 1290.

Epson Premium Semi gloss ("PSG"), Glossy and Luster Photo Papers: Media Type: "Photo Paper."

UT2-PSG-Neutral-1
UT2-PSG-Carbon-1
UT2-PSG-Sepia-1

These curves do not work on Premium Semimatte, which will need to have the shadow densities raised. That paper also does not achieve as high a dmax as the other Epson Premium Photo papers.

Epson Premium Semigloss, as well as the other Premium papers in this line, where designed for pigmented inks. Additionally, they are the only glossy papers that Wilhelm Research has rated as having dark storage lives of over 200 years. This, combined with excellent fade resistance ratings make these papers the top choice for archival glossy ("RC" or "barrier" paper) prints.

Among these papers, the Premium Semigloss, in my opinion, gives the best image.

I am especially enthused about the potential of "barrier" type papers when they are sprayed with a protective coating like PremierArt or Lyson print guard/shield. This spray largely eliminates the differential reflections (including what some call "bronzing") and makes the print surface so tough it can be cleaned with a damp cloth. Encapsulating carbon pigments may be an excellent way to make a more durable print that has been easily possible in the past. Air pollution, humidity, and oxidation are primary factors in fading and damaging photos. These air-borne problems can enter the paper through either the front or back.

Enjoy.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com