* Need to find true black ink *

[jmcnicoll]

In my opinion I would not consider fine are on any solvent other than the Epson. I have done fine art printing for yeas on Epson aqueous and the Epson solvents is the closest I've seen to the quality of aqueous. That said, if your doing fine art aqueous is the best choice. Brand of rip can also make a huge difference, even when both are profiled for the same paper by the same operator... As far as profiling monitors I'm on the side of waste of time and money if you really know what your doing. You should really view your colors by the numbers and not how the look on a monitor, even is it's profiled. I also come from the offset prepress world and have worked on profiled and none profiled monitors and saw no benefit from it if you know your colors and work with the percentages of inks in the colors. You must also consider the a roll media you buy today may print a little different than a roll you bought 3 months ago.

Jim

 

[jmcnicoll]

One other thing... My base rich black on our epson solvent is C15 M10 Y10 K100, but differs depending on media a little and resolution.

 

[randya]

The light source you evaluate your prints under will also change the perceived color of the inks. They may look fine in daylight, greenish under fluorescent, and warm under tungsten.

Unfortunately, what you are trying to do isn't as simple as it may seem.

To add to the confusion:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-metamerism.htm

http://www.inkjetart.com/2000p/metamerism.html

 

[Correct Color]

Does this mean that getting a profile made will solve this problem once and for all?
Where does one find someone to do the profiling for the printer?
What is the ballpark cost of such? 200. 500. 800.?
Will this absolutely make light shades of grey stay in the greys without any color in it?

I'm a little late to this party, but what the hell...

First off, most of the responses on this thread are not too close to the mark. Keep in mind that your printer, printing on whatever media you're using, has a maximum black point all its own. Properly profiled, that point will be the blackest black it can produce.

And what that black point will not be is the same as 100% K in any other color space.

Same with any combination of CMYK sent to your printer produced in Photoshop or Illustrator or whatever. That combination will only be valid in whatever color space your application is set to when you create it. If you've never changed the defaults, that most likely means it's SWOP. And that's assuredly not the color space of your printer.

The toughest thing there is to do in printing is to produce neutrals out of other colors, but to say it's tough is not to say it can't be done.

What needs to happen is your printer needs to be profiled by someone who really knows what they're doing, and then your entire workflow needs to be synchronized so that you don't have any unintended color corruption somewhere along the line from inception to print. Once that's done, then you'll at least be as close as possible to your goal.

Can you get there completely?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, you can, but there are some trade-offs involved. Where you draw some lines is entirely up to you.