OK, I’m not a total Luddite. (I’m writing this on a computer, after all.)

And I truly am interested in digital printing.

Up until lately, though, I haven’t much liked what I saw. But reading more the other day about carbon-ink printing on 100 percent cotton watercolor paper — and, especially, the fact that my old, unused Epson C88+ could be rejiggered with carbon inks — inspired me to give it a try.

As with all things digital, there is a learning curve. And as with all my previous digital printing experiences, the curve is very, very irritating.

But, on Friday, I finally got the C88 matched up with a continuous inking system from inksupply.com, which also provided me four bottles of varyingly intense warm-black inks. (Total cost, about $135, plus some days of waiting while they cheerfully diagnosed a chip problem on the ink cartridges…. don’t ask. Anyway, they’re working now.)

And on Saturday I spent about $20 at the local art supply store on nine full-sized sheets of good watercolor paper, which I cut down to 81 smaller sheets, each about 7.3 by 10 inches (a full sheet is 22×30, so do the math).

I bought a few sheets each of Arches coldpressed, Arches hotpressed and Canson Montval, all 90-pound thickness, which is thin for a watercolor paper, but I have had trouble getting 140-pound paper through the printer.

Results so far:

The Arches hotpressed paper, which is pretty slick to the touch, gives the cleanest, sharpest image, though that is not exactly what I am after for hand coloring. The coldpress paper is rougher and more interesting, but knocks contrast down a bit.

The Montval paper doesn’t work well at all; for some reason it shows significant banding in dark areas.

The image above was printed on the Arches coldpress and then hand colored with acrylics.

Yes, the wet paint smudged the image. This is a problem.

There may be ways to fix it, from using a spray-on fixative (yuck) to washing the finished but uncolored print in running cold water to remove  loose pigment particles (hey, one of the ideas of digital is not to have to wash prints….) to working more quickly with an initial coat of acrylic medium to seal the surface.

The color is not at all what I am used to. Whether that’s a bad or good thing remains to be seen.

In any case, though, I feel like I have an escape if good darkroom  photo paper disappears completely.

Photo: Ferns, 5×7 hand colored carbon pigment print, 2010

I’ve been thinking a lot again about digital black and white. The attraction of film, of course, is the beautiful prints that can be produced in a darkroom, and I haven’t come even close to being convinced that digital printing has reached the level of quality, cost, convenience and permanence offered by old fashioned black and white prints. Most digital prints I’ve seen, quite frankly, have been crap — and then they fade.

But it’s clear that the situation has changed quite a bit in the past few years.  After some reading, it looks like it’s possible to make archival, high quality black and white prints on a fairly inexpensive printer, if you’re willing to look around for the right inks. It may be possible to print good quality black and white with simple carbon pigment ink on artist watercolor paper and then hand color the prints, using the same paints I am using right now.

Hmmmmmm. That sounds interesting — especially since my favorite hand coloring paper of the old fashioned darkroom variety has long been extinct, and I still haven’t found a replacement.

What would going digital mean for me? Well, for one thing, it could reduce the amount of camera gear I own, since I now maintain both digital and film systems. I could achieve my goal of a single coherent photo system, something that has been driving me quietly crazy over the past year. And it could speed up the process of everything from taking the photos to printing them.

It would also mean more computer time, and a new process to learn and understand.

To dip a careful toe into the water, I sent off this evening  for a set of carbon pigment inks for the old Epson C88 we have had sitting around the house. I’ll run off some prints when the ink arrives and think some more about it. Epson 1400s, which can do 13×19 prints, are just $200 these days, and with a continuous ink system it looks like ink cost can be made insignificant.

Tempting, though I would miss the darkroom.

photo: Back yard, digital black and white, 2010

And, digital has obvious charms.