It takes more than loading a new black ink cartridge to obtain high-quality black & white (B&W) digital photo prints that can rival analog B&W prints. Most inkjet printers are dedicated solely to Black & White printing (unless you add third party equipment), as inkjet printers use color and black ink to create the B&W prints. There are some tradeoffs when using color to create your shades of gray, namely the barely visible color cast (usually magenta or green) that preclude the images from being truly “black and white.” Let’s take a look at how you can make “glorious” black and white prints.
Using Monochromatic Inksets
As mentioned above, there is usually a color cast in most Black & White prints, because the printer combines the various CMYK colors to achieve the B&W images. As this color cast is unacceptable, the best way to achieve a quality B&W image is to set your color space to black & white in your image management software (i.e. Photoshop, Aperture, Lightroom). When you do this, you’ll get a better actualization of the true grayscale tones of a monochromatic image. One surefire way to reproduce this grayscale is to use special monochromatic inks; these inks produce shades of gray (typically 15%, 25%, 45%, 50% and 75%), and full black. When you use monochromatic inks, you can achieve the remarkably smooth tones that make a Black & White image pop out from the paper, and guess what? No color cast.
Metamerism
Printing in Black & White presents another problem – metamerism. This problem occurs because the printer creates the final tones using different coloring sources, and the various gray midtones that are created by the blending of colors will react and therefore appear visibly different when viewed under various light sources (i.e. fluorescent, incandescent, daylight). Metamerism is most pronounced with glossy photo paper, and the only true way to avoid metamerism in your prints is to use special printer drivers that do not mix the colors in the fashion that would produce this light-source-specific color cast. You can also use dedicated B&W inksets or special paper. However, one problem with the special inksets is that it hard to go back to using color ink afterwards (it‘s very hard to clean the inkwells). So a dedicated Black & White printer is probably the best answer. Printers are inexpensive these days.
Bronzing
Another problem experienced when printing in black and white is bronzing. This occurs with inkjet printers when the printer mixes another color with black ink, and when the ink is applied to glossy photo paper. The mixed black ink will appear “bronze” when viewed from an indirect angle. While this happens all the time with color inkjet printing, the effect is masked by the other colors when you make a color print. Bronzing is most apparent with strict Black & White prints. To avoid this headache, use a printer that accepts Photo Black and Matte Black inks to manage the grayscale of the image.
Using Specialized Drivers
As metamerism is a real problem for fine art printing, third party software designers have created specialized printer drivers – Raster Image Processors (RIPs) – to deal with the specific task of effectively making Black & White prints with a color printer. RIPs also give you the ability to control the black density of print, which can be very helpful. RIPs are integral in the color management process (even though we’re talking about Black & White, color management is required to ensure true black, grays and white) as they can also make adjustments according to the light source in which the Black & White print will be displayed, and according to various media types (photo paper). RIPs give you that added necessary control for successful Black & White printing.
Ink Types
There are two types of inkjet printers – dye-based and pigment-based. So you’re probably asking, what’s the difference? Dye-based inks are water-soluble and the photo paper absorbs the ink as it’s sprayed from the printhead nozzle. Pigment-based inks are manufactured with the color pigment suspended in a neutral color carrier material, and the pigment affixes itself to the fibers in the paper. Pigment-based inks are water-resistent, whereas you need to keep water away from the dye-based inks (otherwise they’ll run). Dye-based inks are also susceptible to deterioration when exposed to ultraviolet light. Pigment-based inks take a longer time to dry, and therefore are more suited to archival or fine art photo printing applications.
Conclusion
As print technology improves, more and more photographers are using digital printing techniques to make Black & White prints from color printers. The top inkjet print manufacturers have extensive lines of printers for all budgets and specifications. They even have printers that use up to 12 inks to create the difficult to produce grayscale. These printers mix the inks with the most neutral blacks and grays possible. High-end printers accept rolls of photo paper, as well as other creative flat media (like painter’s canvas), and many have completely customizable printer profiles. So with all the advances and options, you can afford to get a dedicated Black & White printer if you will be printing many Black & White images.
