Piezo

 
Any Colour, As Long As It's Black
Since the advent of inkjet printing, colour has dominated. This is in large part due to the overwhelming popularity among photographers for working in colour, but in large part reluctance by traditional B&W practitioners to embrace digital methodologies. This has largely been because the use of standard colour inks to produce B&W images is fraught with problems, including colour casts and longevity issues.
As mentionedelsewhereon this site, advances in inkjet printing have been dramatic in the past few years. In the 6 years since 1995, when the firstEpson Stylus Photoprinter was introduced, till now (2001), desktop inkjet printers have gone from hobbyist novelty to professional tool. With the introduction of pigment-ink based printers (Epson 2000P, 7500, 9500) by Epson in mid-2000 print longevity made an exponential leap‚ from fading in as short a time as a few weeks to current claimed archival fade resistance of 100 to 200 years. This...