The ink schemes are thus:
1: a simple matte black - the routine black for drawings and basic Archicad renderings made without photographic backgrounds.
2: The Photo Black and its associated greys - for photographic reproduction.
The printer switches between modes at some expense - about US$5. because the black line must be flushed. This is a problem when printing both drawings and photography since print runs must be carefully planned to minimize shifting gears. Of course, you can always fool the machine into making plain paper prints using the photo black ink. Works fine.
Inkjet printers have always had difficulty with subtlety at extremes - at both the light and dark. They have long used dilute magenta and cyan to smooth the transition to white [yellow, being weak and transparent, needs no lighter tone]. These dilute colors prevent a shattered edge of perceptible dots as the image transits to white - another reason to never print absolute white in a photo. Additional greys build up a subtle, almost metallic sheen in monochrome photos that is quite beguiling when applied to the correct papers.
Dwight Atkinson
