Printer for B & W ?

[lenelg]

My old printer is due for replacement, and I would like to find one which can also print decent greyscale photos. I am not looking for a semiprofessional solution with dedicated greyscale inkset, but a reasonably priced "photo" printer. A3 prints would be a bonus, but I can live with A4.

[Shadowman]

My old printer is due for replacement, and I would like to find one which can also print decent greyscale photos. I am not looking for a semiprofessional solution with dedicated greyscale inkset, but a reasonably priced "photo" printer. A3 prints would be a bonus, but I can live with A4.

Look for one with individual color cartridges, the lower the cost of the printer-the more expense you will pay for the cartridges. I have a six-year-old hp photoprinter, so I haven't been researching printers lately.

[Andrew1]

I too am looking and interested in hearing what others are using and committed to. So far the Epson Stylus R3000 is the front runner but I'm not finished yet. The only downside is the price. It's not one of the top ones but for the money I could get an awful lot of very good prints from the local Costco.

[Boatman]

There is a lot going on with the Epson 1400/1430 printers. Paul Roark has developed several black and white strategies that work well. Going to a black-only ink set is the way to go and it is not as expensive as you would think. Figure about $100 to get set up with refillable cartridges and some black inks. Once you have the refill equipment and the carts the cost is next to zero for the ink it self. (This is also true with color ink.) The Epson 1430 will only set you back about $220 and that's with a full set of Epson Claria ink cartridges.

Switching between the black-only and color ink sets is no big deal. The only hassle is that each time you do it the printer will go through a cleaning cycle that consumes quite a lot of ink. That's bad if you are using Epson inks. If you are using MIS inks, or even Conecolor inks and refilling your cartridges the cost of the wasted ink is negligible.

Check out www.paulroark.com and yahoo groups, 'black and white the print'. Both are excellent resources on black and white printing.

[victor]

I use a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 MKII. Very happy with its b/w performance todate.

Regards

[RayG]

I do a lot of B&W printing and am fortunate enough to own an Epson 3800, so it's relatively easy. If you are serious about B&W printing I believe the only option is to go for a printer than uses multiple black inks (Black, Light Black and Light Light Black). Although you may get lucky occasionally with a B&W print on a printer using a single black ink you will nto obtain any consistency of results. There will usually be a colour contamination, either in the quarter or three-quarter tones, of magenta or possibly green. Unfortunately, going for a multip-black printer will mean going for an A3 model. I don't know of any A4 multi black printers available. Epson replace their A4 printers nearly every week (so it seems) that it would probably be uneconomical for them to make any of them multi-black capable. The latest A3 model, the Epson 3000, is a good (though expensive) printer but there are 3rd party inkflows available and because these are tubeless systems, they work very well.

Ray G

[Jack32]

HL-2040 laser printer prints good black-and-white images. Most of the B and W printers do not have shades of gray. To simulate gray in graphics, they print halftones.
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Short run printing Toronto

[Mark von Kanel]

The canon mg series has black and grey carts and does nice B&W at A4 its cheap as chips to buy the printer but i use lyson inks in refillable carts, ive just bought an epson 3880 but had no time to play with it before having to go to work for 10 weeks... but im back home next week and i get to play!

[Manfred M]

The canon mg series has black and grey carts and does nice B&W at A4 its cheap as chips to buy the printer but i use lyson inks in refillable carts, ive just bought an epson 3880 but had no time to play with it before having to go to work for 10 weeks... but im back home next week and i get to play!

Mark - I have a 3880 as well and have found that I get better B&W when I let the printer, rather than Photoshop manage colours in B&W. Somehow Photoshop seems to introduce a tiny bit of a colour cast, and the Epson drivers are pure B&W. When printing colour, I always use Photoshop to manage colours.

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi Manfred,

Thanks for the tip, i do most of my editing in LR, I do have cs5 but im a bit of a numpty when it comes to using it Ill be back on here picking everybodies brains when i get home and start playing. Do you do all your own printing or do you use commercial printers mostly?

[Manfred M]

Hi Manfred,

Thanks for the tip, i do most of my editing in LR, I do have cs5 but im a bit of a numpty when it comes to using it Ill be back on here picking everybodies brains when i get home and start playing. Do you do all your own printing or do you use commercial printers mostly?

I print pretty well everything myself.

[sqjaw]

Epson 2400 and 2880 printer have three black cartridges[ gloss or matte] then Light black and light light black
and do very goo job on B&W prints

[rpcrowe]

I have not used one but, attended a demonstration of the Canon Pixma Pro One printer today at Calumet Camera in Escondido, California. The results of this printer in black and white printing was fantastic. It is said to have "Professional quality grayscale printing with five black and gray inks included for smooth gradations and reduced graininess and new Chroma Optimizer which creates uniform glossiness, expanded color gamut and enhanced black density." This last is quoted from the Canon site...

If I were seeking a printer for black and whte printing, I would seriously consider this printer. However for general printing, I am quite happy with my Pixma Pro 9000 Mk II printer which I purchased this year at a remarkably low price; because of a hefty rebate from Canon. Apparently Canon was getting rid of the Pro 9000 Mk II printers to make way for the new Pro One model...

There appears to be a rebate going on for the Pro One printer now. However, this rebate doesn't reduce the price of the Pro One as drastically as the rebates when I purchased my Pixma Pro 9000 Mk II. I got mine fo about two hundred U.S. dollars after the sale it was on and after the rebates.