Digital BW, The Print

I spent some time again today on this. Viewing the 21 step wedge under day light clearly showed that there is indeed a difference between the neutral and warm curved prints. Looks like I didn't mess up my PS settings :)

I installed QTR and started creating some custom curves to learn more about the process. I'm really enjoying the UT-14 inkset with QTR; makes alot of sense to me now. One thing I'm having trouble with, however, is the overall print being too dark. Perhaps I specified too high a ink limit? I've setup a cool curve which uses only the black ink and the cyans (I have a similar warm curve that only uses black + magentas; but I first want to nail the cool setup), and then measured using my scanner the densities. What I've found when linearizing the wedge was that I had a pronounced dip in the shadows (something like 90 77 70) and poor separation the lights (wedge 10/15/20 all measure the same L value). Any thoughts on possible solutions?

Regards, Matthew

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul" <roark.paul@...> wrote:
>
>  "mjnewhook" <mjnewhook@> wrote:
> >
> > I tried the neutral & warm curves in the 1400 archive attached to http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/UT14.pdf. I don't really see much difference in the output of the 21 step.
> 
> See page 6 of http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/UT14.pdf.  There is a very distinct difference in tones that the inkset can achieve.  Basically the Photoshop curves embedded in the ICCs use different amounts of the cyan (cool) inks and magenta (warm) inks to make the different tones.
> 
> > Is it simply not possible to get output that looks similar to traditional Ilford FB paper developed with Dektol with this inkset?
> 
> My memory of that combination was that it was slightly warm, but I don't know the exact Lab A & B values.  With the UT14 inkset you mostly have control of the Lab B values.  With respect to the glossy v. matte difference, displaying the print under glass largely eliminates the difference.
> 
> > Perhaps I'm doing something wrong in the PS print settings?
> 
> That is often the problem.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>