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Hi All,

Anybody has any experience in printing B&W picture in color printer? Somehow, the picture is not sharp enough (or not B&W enough) seems like I printed in Sepia, eventhough I did desaturate the color or taking in B&W mode (EOS 20D).
I use Canon i990 with 7 ink printer.
I've heard there are kit to transform [multiple ink] color printer into gray scale printer. Anybody tried that solution? Or any better solution?

Thanks...

I've never had much luck with Color printers and b&w. Apparently there is an Epson out there specifically designed for b&w

Change the image to greyscale in your software, AND tell the printer(driver) to print in greyscale as well.

Desaturation may still leave the image as a colour image, which may force the printer to use colour inks to mimmick greytones instead of different densities of black ink.

I print my B+W's for sale in galleries, and have been quite successful, so I guess I can speak to this. First off there is no Epson printer dedicated to B+W, but they can be converted easily if that is your intention. Secondly NONE of my friends with Canon printers have been able to totally eliminate the colour caste with their prints. Maybe that is their problem not the printer, but I have heard that is true from several here at "usefilm" as well.
I use an Epson 1280, and initially I simply printed using the black cartridge only. I was told by my Canon friends that this does not work, but after reading an article in "Black&White Photography" (an English Mag) decided to give it a try. The results were excellent, and I received many comments from B+W darkroom specialists complimenting my work.
Recently I switched to using Lyson "Quad Black" inksets (these are available for some Canons as well) more for longevity than anything else. This is any easy conversion, but not really an option if you intend to print colour as well. Whatever method you choose it seems to be critical to use paper designed for your printer or to download profiles from the manufacturer. I use Epson "Heavyweight Matte" exclusively now. I experiment a lot, as I think the printing process is perhaps MORE important in B+W than colour, and I have achieved the best results for my work with this paper.
Anyway my advice would be to first decide how serious you are about B+W. I ONLY sell B+W's, so having a printer for nothing but B+W makes sense. If you are only a casual B+W artist, then using any printer where you can shut off the colour cartridge should work, especially if you use matte paper. The difference between my "Black Only" and "Quad Black" prints can really only be seen by someone who knows what they are looking for, and who is using magnification.
Good luck Sony, a good B+W print is an achievable goal in digitally.

Thanks Richard, it's very interesting what you said about gray-scale conversion. I think, it will do if I bought separate ink nozzle/print-head for my color and b&w print. Do you have any information about the Lyson B&W Conversion? Web site or something?
'cos I know a real B&W print really is a goal in digital world. And I don't like it when my B&W print is like when you print your B&W film in C41 kiosk....
Thanks!

Hi Sony. I get my inks from the Canadian distributor which won't be much help to you, since you don't live in Canada. I think the International website is just lyson.com, but you should be able to find it by just putting "Lyson Inks" into your search engine.
The conversion is easy. You just install the cleaner cartridges (you must order these from Lyson too)and run them until your test prints are blank, then install the Lyson cartridges made for your model printer. It really is as easy as a regular cartridge change. There are profiles etc. you can download from the website, but I didn't bother. My first prints were fantastic just following the basic instructions. The disadvantage is that you have to reverse the whole process to go back to colour!!!!! It really helps to have 2 printers. There are different sets of inks depending on what tone your want ... warm or cool. The website does have a lot of info.
There is no comparison to the automated labs .... these are much better. Most people think they are darkroom prints. I do art shows as well and often get to talk to other photogaphers about the process. Like I said only the experienced traditional printers can see the difference, and sometimes only after I have pointed it out to them.

Hi Richard, thanks for the info...

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