I have purchased a sampling of Hahnemühle fine art matte papers and was surprised
to find on their web site profiles for both the Epson K3 Matte-black AND Photo-black inksets for
not all but quite a few of their matte papers. I find this quite interesting! Has anyone tried
the PK ink with the Hahnemühle matte papers or done any comparisons between PK and MK
with these papers?

PK was what we all used to use in the past, so no reason it cannot be used now. The MK ink just gives it the extra kick (and if you want to do the change-over).

Any RC coated paper should use photo black (Pk) ink. All other matte Hahnemühle papers require matte black (Mk) ink for the proper DMax.

They give you two sheets of each. Try each with both blacks and see the difference. That's why I have two Epson printers, one with Pk and one with Mk.

With the proper ICC profiles, the Hahnemühle fine art papers are the best I have seen. Just be careful of mechinical scuffing of the dark areas.

Gene

Any suggestions about which black for Hahnemuhle Pearl ?
My understanding is it's PK because of its finish and not MK.

It was my understanding that the FAP uses PK ink. That is what I use in the 4800. I also set the media as a semigloss(Epson Premium Photo SemiGloss 250).

Thanks

I've been getting gorgeous results on my Epson 3800 with Fine Art Pearl,
using PhotoBlack, Print Settings set to Premium Luster and the ICC Profile
I downloaded from Hahnemuhle's website (which is the same they have
for the 4800).

The use of Matte Black (MK) in the Epson K3 inkset results in an improvement of around 0.3 in maximum density (DMax)compared with the use of Photoblack (PK) when using matte art papers. In the case of Hahnemuhle Photo Rag (HPR) the DMax with MK is 1.60 here. I would be very interested if anyone obtains better results on a matte art paper. I am yet to see sensitometric analysis of current Canon and HP offerings.
Many other papers I use come very close, and for practical purposes are equivalent in this respect. For instance Crane Museo Max and Awagami Okawara White come in around 1.55. Both these papers have no optical brighteners and the latter is handmade and heavily textured.
It is not only DMax that is improved with the use of MK over PK. The darkest black is included in most of a grey scale to some extent, especially of course in the low values. Thus MK results in extended and deeper tones in monochrome prints on matte paper.
This also applies to coloured images where colours appear "Richer".
Lustre and glossier papers should use PK. On these papers DMax up to 2.75 have been reported , but I suspect this may be somewhat speculative. A paper like Crane Museo Silver Rag comes in around 2.25, and the Innova equivalent has been quoted around 2.55 and higher . If true this is not necessarily a good thing. More important is the ability to separate shadow tones. A bucket of lamp black on a piece of paper may be very black but .....
Using MK on these papers often gives obnoxious surface effects and poor blacks.
There is another interesting point here. In an attempt to increase DMax and consequently dynamic range, various approaches may be made to put down more ink. Not only may this result in blocked shadows it may also cause a curious reversal , like solarization in the deepest tones .
It's a tricky busines!
Cheers,
Brian,
www.pharoseditions.com.au