Epson 2100 printer (2200 in US)

[Spatch]

I am currently having problems (in fact it is driving me mad) with the age old problem of printing black and white on 6 ink inkjet printer (it is a Canon i950). I have tried profiling the printer many times but I cannot get really neutral B&W - however I try.

I have decided that the best way to proceed is look at another printer which has a combination of grey cartridges which are used to print the B&W rather than a conbination of the coloured inks. The Epson 2100 looks like a likely candidate (plus it will print A3). I have a few of questions for those of you who already own this printer:

1) Looking on the Epson website it seems as if it has preloaded ICC profiles. However, can it use custom made profiles (that I will generate)?
2) What is it like at printing B&W, is it really neutral?
3) Is it possible to print neutral B&W pictures on an otherwise colour page (i.e will the printer use the greys to print the B&W and then use the colours for the rest of the page)?
4) Has anyone tried to use the remote, large capacity, inking system that I have seen offered for other Epsons.

Thanks for any feedback.

[VonClev]

Spatch:

1) Yes, the Epson can use custom profiles. Supposedly (from numerous reviews I have read), the Imageprinter RIP does a spectacular job with with B/W on the 2200. However,I have not yet used this program (its expensive $500US). Using the profiles that came with the Epson, I was going nuts trying to get anything near B/W - always getting magenta or green tones. However, when I downloaded the updated Epson 2200 profiles from their website, viola! near perfect B + W's. Beforewarned however, you will always experience some degree of metamerism with Epson print out. I have had good luck tweaking when converting from colot to B/W with the Optikverve software.

4) No I've not used a larger Epson, although I envy anyone with a 4000!

Good luck,

Charles

[Spatch]

Charles,

Thanks for the feedback. Are you using Epson papers with your 2200? I am currently using Ilford and I wonder if Epson have profile for this paper.

Cheers.

[VonClev]

Spatch:

Yes, the profiles that come with the 2200 and the updates online are specifically for the full range of Epson papers. If your question is regarding the Ilford papers, then I would check the Ilford site to see if they profiles for their papers on the 2200.