By Jon Canfield

I find it ironic that black and white imagery seems more popular than ever in the digital age. There’s just something about a strong monochromatic image that is more compelling than anything you can create with color. But obtaining a quality black and white from an inkjet printer has been frustrating, with many prints showing a color cast or significant bronzing.

While monochrome inksets are available from vendors such as MediaStreet, Jon Cone’s Inkjet Mall, and Lyson (yes, there are others, but these three have been the top-quality inks in my experience), new printers such the HP Designjet Z3100 have reduced or eliminated the need to go with a pure black and white printer. Obviously, not having a dedicated black and white printer saves money and space, but is the quality from the HP Designjet Z3100 really that good?

To find out, I made some comparison prints using this black-and-white image. For neutral tones, the HP printer was a clear winner with better tonal gradation and more neutral grays. Only when I went to a toned print did the dedicated inks show any advantage at all.

One area in which the other printers and inks couldn’t compete was the use of the gloss enhancer available on the Z3100. When printing to fiber or gloss media, the addition of gloss enhancer made a dramatic improvement, eliminating bronzing from the final print.

Part of the reason for HP’s high quality is that you’re essentially printing to a quadtone printer when using fine art media. The Z3100 uses both photo black and matte black along with the two grays. By not using any of the color inks, you eliminate any color cast that may otherwise be present. The only way to accomplish this with other printers is to replace the inkset with a dedicated monochrome inkset. This is costly and impractical when you also want to print color because you need to flush the ink lines with every cartridge change.