I would suggest you look at a few issues to help you determine your needs.
For the best B&W reproduction, the 2400 is the preferable printer for a
few reasons. The 2200 uses two densities of black ink, and offer two
type of the dark black, matte and photographic. The reason is the matte
contains more pigment and is much denser, but it is also not glossy, and
tends to show up as matte on glossy paper. The photo black is less
dense, but has a relatively normal gloss when printed on glossy paper
stocks.
The 2400 has three densities of black ink, so using just those three
a very smooth tonal gradient black and white print can be produced
without introducing the color inks to "fill in" the gray scale, which
can lead to undesirable tints.
Some people find using the new Ultrachrome inks for the 2400 work well
enough with matte paper that they don't bother replacing the dark black
ink with the matte ink. That saves you some ink, because each time you
exchange the black cartridges, the heads have to be purged, and all
heads are purged together (including the color ones).
The 2200 is a good printer with very few reports of clogging or other
mechanical problems. The inks are slow drying, however. It produces
beautiful color and reasonable B&W images. The 2400 output is however,
considered an improvement. Ink costs on both is higher than others.
The 1800 and 800 are mainly designed for color work with glossy paper.
They added several extra colors to improve the color gamut to very
nearly that of dye inks, by using a red and a blue ink source. As I
mentioned these inks are really designed for glossy paper stock in that
the inks themselves have a glossier ink base when dry, and the printer
is fitted with a gloss optimizer, which is another cartridge filled with
a clear coating that can be placed over the print during printing.
The main consideration for you may be how the inks respond to use of oil
paints, solvents and oil pencils for hand coloring. I don't know if
they will hold up to that type of treatment or if you will find papers
that can handle that and also work well with the Ultrachrome inks.
However, a better question might be if you might want to reconsider how
you do your art. For instance, rather than hand coloring the black and
white prints after they are printed, how about working in an imaging
editing software like photoshop, and hand coloring the digital file with
transparent and glazing techniques, and then printing the result:? You
can probably create a very similar look, and it will be reproducible
over and over again as it will be part of the file itself. Also, you
will then have no problem with the oils or inks or pencils and other
solvents and materials possibly lifting or ruining either the paper
surface or the B&W print underneath your hand coloring.
I realize that it may not be the same skill set, or even the same amount
of fun, and yes, you won't have each print an original either, so that
may be an issue for you.
Under any circumstance, I do suggest you try to find someone who can
print some sample prints on a variety of papers and try the hand
coloring to find out if the thing holds together or not. Also, keep in
mind some often chemicals (and oils) used in the colorants you will be
adding may, over time yellow or otherwise alter the inkjet coatings used
on inkjet papers.
Art
Cary said:
I'm considering buying a refurbished Epson 2200 instead of the R2400,
R1800, smaller R800 or other brand. My needs range from printing
black & white photographs on art paper
to be hand-colored (with oils) to printing decks of
playing cards for a game I've designed - the card stock I'm using is
[i:ca86c3775f]clay-coated [/i:ca86c3775f]to give the feel of real
cards.
The Epson pre-sales folks were steering me towards the 2400, but I
have an artist friend who loves the 2200, and reviews highly praise
this model.
I cannot find enough info about paper compatibility with the
Ultrachrome inks - except the thread about the R1800. Anyone have
advice?
