Printing Digital B&W

We only have Canon s9000's at school, and I am not pleased with the black and white at all, they arnt in good enough condition after the thousands of prints that get pumped through them each week, so even if they were somewhat capable it wouldnt help

but what's the best way to get solid b&w prints out of my digital shots? I'm fine with the editing side as far as converting the images, but inkjet just doesnt seem to do the trick for the printing side of things.

Are you saving them as RGB or Grayscale? RGB is preferred, since that's what the printers are used to handling. Printing Grayscale will confuse the undercolor removal algorithms of the print driver, and it's this process that controls how the RGB colors get converted to blacks and grays. Printing grayscale to an RGB printer will often result in muddy colors rather than nice blacks and grays.

Also, some company produces a 4 tone black ink kit which replaces the CMYK inks normally used. I can't think of the company right now but if no one else comes up with it I'll hunt it down. (Gotta head to work right now.)

yes they were saved as RGB< it's just a common complaint from many of the students/staff and I would like to figure out the best solution. I'd love to know how those inks would work out though.

thansk for the info

Here's a lightweight article that's a little interesting: http://www.inkjetmall.​com …fo/media/shutte​rbug1.html

Another, kinda sales pitch: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk …monochromepro_r​eview.html

Another from Luminous Landscapes: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorial​s/digital_b-w.shtml

And here's an article which lists a number of B&W inks: http://www.shutterbug.​com …0205digitalbw/i​ndex1.html

I've achieved good B&W results from the similar Canon i9100, but not without a fair bit of effort! You need to very carefully check all your color management and print driver options and fully understand what they all mean. These settings have a huge effect on final print quality. Also what paper are you using? Canon's own Photo Paper Pro will give good results with the standard driver profile, but using anything else is hit or miss. It's also worth noting that B&W is not a strong point with this particular printer.

It would help if you told us what exactly you don't like about the prints?