Taking this independent study, I realized I'd have to make quite a few B&W prints. After looking around for a service that does good B&W prints (on realy B&W photo paper) I realized I could either spend a small fortune over the next 3 months or I could get a printer that could do decent B&W. Most inkjets are pretty poor at doing B&W (you get color casts caused by the mixing of CMY to get black). Until now, I though the Epson 2000 was the best at doing B&W out of the box (not counting the B&W aftermarket inks (Piezography and Lyson Quadtopnes) that cost $200-800 to buy. Then I found the above little beauty. HP came out of nowhere to jump all over the B&W printing market by offering the HP 7x60 series of printers that can accept their new HP #59 Grey Tone cartridge (has black and 2 shades of grey). The above 7960 is the top of the current line that also includes the 7260, 7660 and 7760 (7260 can't accept the #59 cart). The 7660 and 7760 can use the grey cartidge, but they still use PhotoREt IV ink management system that can produce 17 unique shades of grey and then makes composite colors to produce more shades. The 7960, which can hold 3 ink carts at a time (#57 TriColor, #58 PhotoColor and #59 Grey) for 8-colors, uses PhotoREt Pro which can produce 4097 unique shades of grey and 72.9million addressable colors in total. because it's using the Grey cart only for B&W, there is absolutely no color cast to B&W prints. I haven't had a chance to put the printer through its paces yet, but when I do I'll let you guys know. The printer is $299, but if you have an Office Depot around check them out. They have a $70 mail-in rebate offer now, so the printer is only $229. You can also get the 7660 for $99 with rebates if you can live with a slightly degreaded B&W print - that's compared to the 7960, compared to other printers I've seen it's still right up there with the best. -=>Donald

Please let us know how this printer works out. I spent a week trying to figure out the double profile problem with my 2200, and about ready to give it up for lost.
I dont know if anyone has experienced this problem with the 2200, but all my prints come out with a magenta cast. This points to the color profile being added in Photoshop, and in the print driver, even though I have No color correction in ICM on the print driver

Hmm my Epson has a seperate black cartridge to print b/w images. No mixing CMY. Anyway, hope you enjoy this litte treasure :)

keeewl...shiney new toys. will be interested to hear what the results turn out.

Donald, what paper sizes? Are the inks compatible with other vendor's papers? Ink catridge replacement costs? Do you consider the prints high enough quality to sell? Details, we want details! I have been considering a second printer for black and white due to the Epson's color casting of B/W images but haven't done a lot of research. Jack

Attached Link: http://www.photo-i.co.uk/index.html

Wow ... just a few typos in this. Never post when half asleep. :) That should say Epson 2200 up there and not 2000. It's the 2200 with the Epson Ultrachome inks that most people looked too for great b&w printing with minimal metamerism. I also forgot to mention another big reason, besides B&W printing ability, that I got this one. It uses the AdobeRGB colorspace (which is my default Photoshop workspace) - it can also use sRGB colorspace if you want. That is my biggest complaint with my current HP 7150, that it uses the smaller sRGB colorspace. Quinn - Never used the 2200 (except in a store) so couldn't really say. Are you using Windows 2000 or XP? What happens if you turn off all color management (even in Windows)? 3D - If you have one like the 2200 that has the photo black and light black (or opt matte black) then yeah, but most printers use a CMY combination to print b&w (the K or black ink is usually not used as it is normally different from the color inks - one being pigment-based and the others dye-based or vice versa). Jack - Paper size is the one weakness I see so far (just in the stats). It only goes up to 8.5 x 11". Ink costs, as normal with HP ink carts, is higher than some many other printers; but I have always accepted that as a good tradeoff because everytime I buy a cartridge I get brand new print heads with it. I still have nightmares about my old Canon printer and the ink nozzle jams. HP designed the inks to work perfectly with their Premium Plus Glossy and Matte papers. I have seen reviews saying it works with other papers, but they can give you a warmer or colder print. Some of the users liked that because they said it felt like changing papers in a darkroom to get warmer or colder prints. I'd say from what I've seen, they would be high enough quality to sell. Check out the site linked above. This guy really puts stuff through its paces when he reviews them. 7960 is down towards the bottom of this list of reviews (about 21 reviews down). Check it out, has a LOT of info. For the 7960's B&W ability, Vincent Oliver (the guy who owns the above site) had this to say at the end of his 18 webpage review: "The No 59 photo grey cartridge is in a league of its own. I have been a working photographer for over 30 years and have gained considerable skill in b/w printing. The prints I have produced with the 7960 are every bit as good as anything I have ever produced in the darkroom. I would buy the 7960 on the strength of its b/w printing ability alone. Of course the 7960 also prints up to 72.9 million colours as an added bonus." -=>Donald PS. I think I'll try printing on different papers to see how it does myself on them. Besides a bunch of HP Premium Plus I have a lot of other papers sitting on my shelves that I can try: Ilford Fine Art, Lumijet Woven Fiber, Pictorico Premium Photo Glossy Pear, Burlington Ultra Premium High Gloss, Konica Premium Weight Satin, Epson Glossy Photo, Kodak Ultima High Gloss and Satin, Avery Matte Photo, Mead Premium Matte and two strange Japanese fiber papers.

I've got a Stylus Color 685. So nothing like the 2200.

Stylus Color 685? Only seen the 680, is the 685 a European version or did I just miss it? How does it do grey tones if it doesn't use the CMY inks? Is it using something like halftoning? How's the print quality?

Even using inks which are at different shades of grey, those printers are going to be doing the usual inkjet half-toning. Still sounds pretty good.

The 685 is a 680 which is slightly modified so it uses less ink. The 680 used too much ink apparently. The 685 also has a different tray to receive the printed papers, a solid thing and not that flimsy one that came with the 680.

eagerly waiting an in-depth review

Antonia - If I understand it correctly, I guess you could say that the 7960 does a modified halftoning. HP's PhotoREt Pro is able to layer up to 32 single 4pl drops of ink at each pixel point to create its tonal values. Unlike standard halftoning which is to spread multiple dots of various size and color over a larger area to simulate different tonal values. Sort of like restricting the halftoning to being within each pixel. Of course, in the long run it will all be individual dots making up the image and not a continous tone. -=>Donald

Very nice, looking into more information on this one. TMG