Most of the shortcomings of the ink jet printer are overcome by printing a negative rather than a positive. Where the dots are sparse, silver clumps fill the area. Where the ink dots are dense, highlights in the print are rendered smoothly. With negatives made with the Epson Photo 1200 in color mode, the resulting silver gelatin prints are easily accepted as fine prints and can be expressively far superior to those made under an enlarger. The results are repeatable - all of the "dodging & burning" being done before the negative is made, and the final print shares the visual and archival traits associated with fine silver printing.
If you are interested in this adventure, you MUST get Making Digital Negatives for Contact Printing by Dan Burkholder Most of what is described here is the result of standing on Mr. Burkholder's shoulders and assumes an understanding of the material in his book.
Please note that process and media choices (ink, film and photographic paper) described here are appropriate for silver gelatin printing. "Alternative" techniques such as platinum printing require significantly more UV radiation to expose the emulsion. For anything other than silver gelatin prints, I strongly recommend the imagesetter approach as described in Mr. Burkholder's book. The imagesetter will provide more permanent negatives

 

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These are my notes, written while trying make silver prints with negatives from an Epson printer.

1. Make an expressive ink jet proof print. The ambient light in my "computer room" varies widely throughout the day, making it VERY difficult to know when the tonality of a B&W image is precisely as I wish. I find it much easier to compare a print with a print, rather than a print with an image on a computer monitor, and have chosen an ink jet print as final proof of expressive quality.

2. Design an ink jet negative which will produce a silver contact print that EXACTLY matches the ink jet proof.

Preparation Equipment & Materials Step 1 Find Minimum Exposure Needed for PERFECT BLACK. Step 2 Find an Ink Combination for the Proper "Effective Density" for PERFECT WHITE. Step 3 Create an Adjustment Curve for PERFECT TONALITY. Step 4 Print a Negative Step 5 Final Check of the Print A bit about Curves and the Transfer Functions