Since 2002, Owens Valley Imaging has been at the forefront of developing carbon-pigment monochromatic inks. We were the first to explore and develop monochromatic inksets beyond the four-ink boundary.

With a greater number of inks from deep black to near white, a subtle but very important sense of color modulation can be created which can contribute profoundly to the sense of depth and local contrast in a print. Neutral inksets or those that are merely "cool", "warm", "selenium", or "sepia" across the tonal range often appear flat and lifeless and lack the allure of what has historically been the cornerstone of the best optical/chemical processes. The OVI Hextone inks are created from the highest quality carbon pigments. They are sumptuous, archival, individually batch-calibrated, and do not clog.

After 20 months of development, OVI has developed its HTv inks - A single, unique archival variable tone carbon inkset. This inkset is for matte/rag printing and uses six pure carbon inks from black to very light gray plus two very stable low-gamut pigments in smalls amount to control print color.

With the Harrington QTR software, the HTv inkset creates prints that reveal stunning detail and very smooth transitions resulting in prints that are essentially continuous tone. Curves have been developed for certain eight-ink Epson printers to reproduce popular OVI inksets previously made by carbon/color pigment blends.

The new system uses much more stable color pigments but handles the mixing with the printer and software. Rather than simply creating curves for warm, cool, neutral, etc, each HTv curve produces a print with a specific, beautiful color signature along the tonal scale. For example, the NN curve creates a print that is nearly neutral but with slightly warm shadows blending to neutral highlights with a slight selenium bias along the tonal scale.

The JE curve is much warmer and modulates from brown/chocolate shadows to warm midtones. TM is similar but with less warmth and a more selenium/eggplant bias. Ice is cold but without an excessively bluish cast. With the QTR RIP, up to three HTv curves can be blended in the shadows, midtones, and highlights, making it possible to design a blend that is unique and suitable for your work. In combination with numerous rag papers, the possibilities for look and feel are almost endless.

A subtle but very important sense of color modulation can be created which can contribute profoundly to the sense of depth and local contrast in a print. Neutral inksets or those that are merely "cool", "warm", "selenium" or "sepia" across the tonal range often appear flat and lifeless and lack the allure of what has historically been the cornerstone of the best optical/chemical processes. The OVI Hextone inks are created from the highest quality carbon pigments. They are sumptuous, archival, individually batch-calibrated, and are at least as clog-free as the Epson OEM inks.

Stability: OVI has fade tested these inks for 3,200 hours at 37,000 lux (approximately 115 mega-lux hours) on Hahnemühle Photorag resulting in very little color shift and fade. In fact, most of the measured shift was from the paper itself. The tests were conducted under prescribed control conditions in regard to light source, temperature, and humidity. At this point we are very confident in the performance of the HTv inkset and have submitted it to Aardenburg Imaging & Archives for independent testing.

Availability: Our goal is to support a limited number of printers that are likely to be the tools of professional and advanced black and white photographers. The HTv inks are mixed and calibrated in small batches and sold in 125cc and 500cc bottles to be used with readily available refillable cartridges, the QTR RIP, and profiles supplied by OVI. We are currently working out arrangements to sell the inkset through a company that will handle the online ordering and fulfillment. For the time being the inkset is available directly through Owens Valley Imaging (see our Contact page). Customer support will be provided by OVI.

Curves have been developed for each of the supported printer/paper combinations ranging from cooler to warmer:

• Ice
• Cool
• Neutral
• NN
• RP
• TM
• JE
• Kohle
• Carbon

Supported Epson printers are:

• R2880
• 3800
• 3880
• 4880
• 7800/9800
• 7880/9880

A number of cotton rag papers have been profiled and more will be made available. You can also request a free set of curves for a particular printer/paper combination if that printer is supported.

Papers currently profiled are:

• Canson Rag Photographique
• Crane Portfolio Rag
• Moab Entrada Natural
• Hahnemühle Bamboo
• Hahnemühle Photorag
• Innova Smooth Cotton
• Unryu Mulberry Paper

Pricing:
Light Black 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Pigment A, and Pigment B:
125cc (4.2 oz): $40.00
500cc (16.9 oz): $110.00

Eboni Matte Black *
125cc (4.2 oz): $18.00:
500cc (16.9 oz): $50.00

Complete 125cc ink set: $268.00 (10% discount from individual bottle price)

Complete 500cc ink set: $738.00 (10% discount from individual bottle price)

Since the OVI bulk inks are sold by and rounded to metric units, the quantities are slightly more than the 4 oz. and 16 oz quantities sold by other suppliers.

* Why is Eboni less expensive than the other seven inks? Eboni is inarguably the finest matte black carbon ink available and is supplied to us by MIS. It has a higher DMax and markedly superior fade resistance than anything else available. Since it’s essentially a pass-through and requires none of the batch mixing, calibration, and expensive pigments of the other seven, we provide Eboni at the MIS pricing.

Print Samples: Obviously many people are going to want to see print samples before making any decisions, so feel free to request them at inks@ovimaging.com. Please include your mailing address.

Ordering: For the time being, the HTv inkset will be sold directly by OVI by telephone or email order. Credit cards or PayPal payments are accepted. You can contact us at 760.873.8501 or by email at inks@ovimaging.com for ordering or pre-sales questions

Support: OVI will provide QTR profiles, instructions and recommendations for the installation and use of the inks and software. We are available by telephone or email for any support you may need.

At this point we know there will be a lot of questions and will be posting FAQs and more information very soon. Please feel free to contact us at inks@ovimaging.com