Black and white printer quality

[Tony-S]

OK, what's the scoop on black and white printer quality? I have an i9900 (single black cartridge) which sure seems to give excellent black and white prints, but I've also read that printers with two black cartridges give much better results. One such problem with single-cartridge printers that I've read about is that there can be a color cast of some kind; however, I have not noticed such a cast with my i9900. What's the story on these two printer types for black and white? Are there certain ink jet papers that offer better B&W renditions? Is it possible to use two (or more) black cartridges in a one-black cartridge printer (i.e., software solution)?

Thanks,

T.

[Tony-S]

I found this article (http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/info/media/shutterbug1.html) from 1991, which offers a good explanation. I wonder, though, if printer technologies have matured enough that this is now a relative non-issue? I print without setting grayscale from my i9900 dialog box and I do not see any coloration of my black and white prints. I don't know about tonal range, although I do not notice anything conspicuous on my prints.

[SgWRX]

black and white printing has a huge cult following. the general thought is, multiple black inks are the way to go. epson for example has three: Black, Light black and Light light black. there are companies that make up to four blacks, each a different shade of black. the idea is, you get more shades of black when printing as opposed to relying on the dot-pattern of a single black ink. example: pretend a you have a die in front of you, white with black dots on it. the number six would be the darkest black, the number five would be a lighter shade, the number four still lighter etc.

almost all printers use magenta, yellow and cyan to help produce the shades of black, unless you have an inkset like i mentioned above that uses only black inks (cartridges loaded in the printer). EDIT: MIS is a company that makes inksets for black and white printing.


here's a link directly to the black and white ink MIS makes: http://www.inksupply.com/bwpage.cfm

[SgWRX]

here's a link: http://www.inksupply.com/