Currently Browsing: Piezography K7 inks and K7 curves
There have been a lot of advances in pigment inkjet imaging over the last decade. In the realm of monochrome digital photographic printmaking, Jon Cone of Cone Editions in Topsham Vermont has led the way for printmakers like me to discover all the subtleties that this medium has to offer. Jon has created a wide variety of hue sets of Piezography carbon based inks, but the one that I keep coming back to, for both my clients and my personal work is the K7 100% Carbon set. It was formally known as Carbon Sepia. I believe that recently Jon realized that the designation “sepia” was a...Read more
I created my own digital film system for making negatives, back-lits, and film positives on an Epson R2400 printer.
Where it usually takes several days to create the QTR master curves architecture for a new printer, this took weeks. The problem is that affordable auto-scan film densitometers are not currently available, or it would be easy to release systems for all the current printers. I had sourced a refirbished X-Rite DTP32 for about $1,200. This is a transmissive strip reader that measures only a few densities at a time. I found that in measuring 16 densities at a time, it performs...Read more
The is a curves update for QuadTone RIP users of the Piezography MPS Glossy system.
Piezography Glossy printing is any type of printing on non-matte papers (including Baryta).
These papers require our MPS inks which are both matte and glossy compatible due to additional layers of pigment encapsulation. All Piezography pigment is encapsulated to prevent agglomeration due to static charge. However, in order to adhere to non-matte surfaces, we developed two new inks (Selenium K7/K6 and Warm Neutral K7/K6) and a new photo black shade 1 (MPS Black: aka Selenium Shade 1), and a Gloss Optimizer that...Read more
Piezography inks are available in five specific monochromatic tones. Piezography Warm Neutral is our most recent Piezography tone. It is reminiscent of PiezoTone Warm Neutral, and ink that we still sell into legacy printers. The major difference is that PiezoTone inks are available only in four shades, whereas Piezography Warm Neutral is available in seven shades. And Piezography inks are encapsulated pigment, whereas PiezoTone inks are non-encapsulation. Encapsulation is a method in which each tiny pigment particle is encased in a micro layer of acrylic co-polymer. This virtually eliminates...Read more
In the midst of paradigm changes in how ink jet materials are now being tested for light stability (otherwise known as fade), Piezography Carbon (formerly Piezography Sepia) inks are quietly proving (so far!) to be the most fade-resistant inks ever tested at the Aardenburg archives at the 70 megalux point. Piezography Carbon inks have reached the 70 megalux point at a near perfect state. 70 megalux of exposure to light is equivalent to 70 years of normal display. The Epson K3 ABW system arrived at only 20 megalux in a near perfect state but has since been decaying at a very steady rate....Read more
On customizing Piezography.
Piezography has a number of variations that make a near infinitude of possibilities when all of the ink/paper variations are considered. Piezography pigment is so finely milled that the tone of a paper has an enormous affect on the final “hue” of Piezography ink.
For example, Piezography Neutral ink does not appear “neutral” on all papers. It was designed to appear achromatic (with equal amounts of red, green, blue) to human eyes when viewed under 5000k on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper. The tone of Photo Rag is similar to other sheets such as...Read more
You can check the quality of your own linearization with a tool that I have provided in the form of an Excel spreadsheet called “Linearization_Checker.xls”. This spreadsheet has a form for entering in the measurements of a 21 step density chart that has values from 0 to 100% ink in 5% increments. You can enter either Luminosity values (L of Lab) or Density values if your instrument is a densitometer. After entering in the values, a chart is generated that shows the IDEAL linearization and your current linearization.
You must have Microsoft Excel or a compatible spreadsheet shareware or...Read more
Piezography K7 (K6) is a system of seven (or six) shaded monochromatic inks and matching media “profiles,” that when used correctly produce a perfect black & white ink density linearization on a specific media on a specified printer. Piezography K7 (K6) uses a special profile that I make that is compatible with the QuadTone RIP (QTR). However, it is not a traditional QTR profile that can be made with QTR. As such, it can not be edited nor can it be used as a base for making additional QTR profiles. A traditional QTR profile is a set of adjustment points for curves that can be...Read more
My Experience With K7 Carbon – Something to Behold
Posted on Aug 4th, 2011
There have been a lot of advances in pigment inkjet imaging over the last decade. In the realm of monochrome digital photographic printmaking, Jon Cone of Cone Editions in Topsham Vermont has led the way for printmakers like me to discover all the subtleties that this medium has to offer. Jon has created a wide variety of hue sets of Piezography carbon based inks, but the one that I keep coming back to, for both my clients and my personal work is the K7 100% Carbon set. It was formally known as Carbon Sepia. I believe that recently Jon realized that the designation “sepia” was a...Read more
Digital negatives
Posted on Jan 5th, 2011
I created my own digital film system for making negatives, back-lits, and film positives on an Epson R2400 printer.
Where it usually takes several days to create the QTR master curves architecture for a new printer, this took weeks. The problem is that affordable auto-scan film densitometers are not currently available, or it would be easy to release systems for all the current printers. I had sourced a refirbished X-Rite DTP32 for about $1,200. This is a transmissive strip reader that measures only a few densities at a time. I found that in measuring 16 densities at a time, it performs...Read more
Piezography Glossy Curves library
Posted on Dec 23rd, 2010
The is a curves update for QuadTone RIP users of the Piezography MPS Glossy system.
Piezography Glossy printing is any type of printing on non-matte papers (including Baryta).
These papers require our MPS inks which are both matte and glossy compatible due to additional layers of pigment encapsulation. All Piezography pigment is encapsulated to prevent agglomeration due to static charge. However, in order to adhere to non-matte surfaces, we developed two new inks (Selenium K7/K6 and Warm Neutral K7/K6) and a new photo black shade 1 (MPS Black: aka Selenium Shade 1), and a Gloss Optimizer that...Read more
Piezography Warm Neutral
Posted on Sep 15th, 2010
Piezography inks are available in five specific monochromatic tones. Piezography Warm Neutral is our most recent Piezography tone. It is reminiscent of PiezoTone Warm Neutral, and ink that we still sell into legacy printers. The major difference is that PiezoTone inks are available only in four shades, whereas Piezography Warm Neutral is available in seven shades. And Piezography inks are encapsulated pigment, whereas PiezoTone inks are non-encapsulation. Encapsulation is a method in which each tiny pigment particle is encased in a micro layer of acrylic co-polymer. This virtually eliminates...Read more
Piezography Carbon: unbridled fade-resistance
Posted on Jul 13th, 2010
In the midst of paradigm changes in how ink jet materials are now being tested for light stability (otherwise known as fade), Piezography Carbon (formerly Piezography Sepia) inks are quietly proving (so far!) to be the most fade-resistant inks ever tested at the Aardenburg archives at the 70 megalux point. Piezography Carbon inks have reached the 70 megalux point at a near perfect state. 70 megalux of exposure to light is equivalent to 70 years of normal display. The Epson K3 ABW system arrived at only 20 megalux in a near perfect state but has since been decaying at a very steady rate....Read more
On customizing Piezography
Posted on Mar 1st, 2010
On customizing Piezography.
Piezography has a number of variations that make a near infinitude of possibilities when all of the ink/paper variations are considered. Piezography pigment is so finely milled that the tone of a paper has an enormous affect on the final “hue” of Piezography ink.
For example, Piezography Neutral ink does not appear “neutral” on all papers. It was designed to appear achromatic (with equal amounts of red, green, blue) to human eyes when viewed under 5000k on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper. The tone of Photo Rag is similar to other sheets such as...Read more
Checking your linearization
Posted on Jan 21st, 2009
You can check the quality of your own linearization with a tool that I have provided in the form of an Excel spreadsheet called “Linearization_Checker.xls”. This spreadsheet has a form for entering in the measurements of a 21 step density chart that has values from 0 to 100% ink in 5% increments. You can enter either Luminosity values (L of Lab) or Density values if your instrument is a densitometer. After entering in the values, a chart is generated that shows the IDEAL linearization and your current linearization.
You must have Microsoft Excel or a compatible spreadsheet shareware or...Read more
Piezography Profiles
Posted on Jan 21st, 2009
Piezography K7 (K6) is a system of seven (or six) shaded monochromatic inks and matching media “profiles,” that when used correctly produce a perfect black & white ink density linearization on a specific media on a specified printer. Piezography K7 (K6) uses a special profile that I make that is compatible with the QuadTone RIP (QTR). However, it is not a traditional QTR profile that can be made with QTR. As such, it can not be edited nor can it be used as a base for making additional QTR profiles. A traditional QTR profile is a set of adjustment points for curves that can be...Read more