PiezoTone inks
are designed by photographers for photographers.
We have carefully designed the "color" of
our inks as well as the way in which they "lay-down" on
paper. We strive for a photographic look which is synthesized
from familiar darkroom papers and historical process.
They are the result of exhaustive research combined
with a response to the needs and desires of our users.
The new PiezoTone inks feature increased longevity
and reliability over our original PiezographyBW inks.
PiezoTone inks are designed for users who require the
greatest available longevity as well as color stability. While
we understand that the higher costs of our product
do not justify use with every user, we are dedicated
to producing the finest ink on the market and preserving
the standards which have been present in fine photographic
printing since the invention of sensitized silver and
platinum. PiezoTones are available in Warm Neutral,
Selenium Tone, Carbon Sepia, and Cool Neutral gray
sets. There are two available
black position inks which the user can select for either
maximum longevity, or a greater level of optical density.
PiezoTones available in
4 Gray color tones
Color chart:
click to see enlarged
color chart
PiezoTones have
lowest fade rate of all brands of ink:
5% is considered undetectable to humans! (complete
test)
How do we compare?
Many manufacturers state that there
inks will last X amount of years. An industry has formed
around testing inks based on projections. What they don't
tell you is that the longevity is based solely on estimates
in small doses of fluorescent lighting. Look closely on our
1000 hour Xenon tests which are 250% longer than industry
norm. Xenon includes the full spectrum of light. They giver
a realistic view of what happens to an ink in sunlight, fluorescent
and tungsten, and our tests vary the humidity from 20-90%.
Real world conditions and real world data. See for yourself,
how our inks stack up against competing brands. Look closely
at how three companies produce a very similar ink (Warm Neutral). click
here
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Quad
Black inks (dilutions
of black, or dilutions of gray) were
first developed by Cone Editions Press in 1996 as a method
to reduce the presence of dithered dots and to permit
for monochromatic tone which was un modulated by color.
This is a far superior method of printing black and white
images in comparison to using color inks with any other
method. It does not take a trained eye to see the difference
a quad black print makes, when the cyan, magenta, and
yellow dots are not present. Even in minute quantities
with the new EPSON Ultrachrome 2200, 7600 and 9600 printers,
the presence of any "color" ink is a tell-tale sign that the
b&w print is ink jet. A well crafted quad black print
is virtually indistinguishable from a silver print when
it is printed with PiezoTone inks and the special PiezographyBW
or iQuads ICC profiles. Quad black or quad tone refers
to four dilutions. Hex to six, sept to seven and oct to
eight. We refer to all these dilution sets simply as monochromatic
inks. |
Selenium
Tone in a digital print?
YES!. Jon Cone
asked his photography professor, the
late Arnold Gassan, to furnish a fiber
based silver print which he had selenium
toned for replication as an ink set.
This is it. It is similar to short-bath
selenium toning. Some of the descriptions
from users of this ink describe it as "quite
close to my selenium toned Oriental and
Kodak Fine Art silver prints" and "comes
very close to the look of Selenium toned
Ilford Galerie."
read Martin Wesley's review of PiezoTone Selenium
Tone. |
Are
you a purist?
Carbon Sepia
is pure carbon pigment. This ink has
the natural warm undertone of carbon,
which has been used in traditional
photographic process for centuries.
While the other PiezoTone inks use
pure pigment, they are dual-pigment
systems which produce our hues from
Warm Neutral to Cool Neutral. |
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