I was recently told of a company that makes a kit to modify a particular type of Epson printer that will allow one to print using carbon. It will print on any type of paper and the result is stunning. The problem is, the person telling me about this new technique could not remember the name of the company and after searching diligently on the net and Epson's site, I have yet to find any mention of this product. Has anyone heard of this product? Any information would be greatly appreciated, especially since current dye-sub printers try to emulate Black & White using RGB...how ridiculous! Thanks!

-- Lance Potter (jlpotter66@prodigy.net), August 09, 2001

Answers

the process is called piezography by Cone Editions Press, Ltd. you can get their stuff at the following URL: http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/piezography-purchase.html Good luck and let us know how the prints come out!

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm@worldnet.att.net), August 09, 2001.

It will print on any type of paper & the result is stunning? Bet it is a great way to make use of those end pieces from the roll of toilet paper. The cone Piezography kit appears to work well but I still have not seen the prints from it that match a fine B&W silver based print from maximum black to white. I welcome those who can do well to let me see the results. No doubt digital printing is and will continue to get better. But to date, even with beautiful prints being made, the difference is still there with the nod, only from my personal viewing to date, still with traditional silver prints. The other fly in the ointment with the newer processes is the realistic expected life of the digital prints. We are told they will last 'so long' per accelerated aging testing. We have been told the same thing about RC papers. Yet the RC papers have continually 'bit' those who tried them for serious work... they just don't last like the makers say they will. Digital 'may well be' in the same camp. Time will tell. For now I will wait and see how they do before investing in the technology.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), August 10, 2001.

Piezography will not produce stunning results on any type of paper, not even any type of paper designed for digital printing. The number of different types (surfaces, coatings, etc.) of digital printing paper is dizzying. These paper differences have a significant impact on maximum black level, apparent resolution, ink color (cold tone vs. warm tone), etc. The paper is not cheap either.

-- Michael Feldman (mfeldman@qwest.net), August 10, 2001.

I'm still at the starting gate, but have been very pleased with the results of scanning B&W medium format negatives and color (Kodachrome) slides on the Minolta Dimage scanner and printing with the Epson 2000P (archival?) printer.

The B&W prints aren't quite up to what I'd like yet, but the Photoshop Elements software allows the kind of detailed image manipulation I could never have done in the past in the darkroom. I feel that, with a little more experimentation, the results will be the reasonable equivalent of what I would have achieved by conventional methods.

Of course, the opportunity to continue printing in an environment where a darkroom would be impossible is a tremendous plus for the digital approach!

-- Dick Hilker (hilker@adelphia.net), August 28, 2001.