Digital BW, The Print

On 01/06/2013 03:48, Michael wrote:
 > Louis, any chance you still have this setup and could make a print
 > from the same file that Homer did? That would be very interesting.
 > And thanks to Homer for testing this out.


Hi!

At last I can post the promised test picture. My printer and my scanner 
are about 1000 miles apart, and I happened to have to travel in the 
right direction two days ago, so here it is...

Looking at the scan though showed me things I hadn't noticed when I 
quickly looked with bare eyes at the print: there are those strange 
white lines that look like scratches (or misfiring nozzles?). You see 
them best in the upper one of the two opposed wedges in the upper middle 
of the image (behind the text "Black and White test print") and in the 
little foggy landscape, the funny thing being that the lower wedge is 
perfectly clean (to do with relation between gradient direction and 
print direction???). It doesn't seem to me to be micro-banding, which on 
the other hand is visible in the middle part of the step wedge on the 
left. If anyone has an idea about those white lines, your comment will 
be very welcome...

But let's get to the essentials. This was to be compared to Homer's test 
prints (http://sdrv.ms/14cmWes). Thus I tried as much as very limited 
time permitted to replicate the conditions and especially the dimensions 
of Homer's prints. (Sorry, I missed one point: it seems I printed 
perpendicularly to how Homer did, but this isn't too important, it just 
changes the direction of the micro-banding.)

- The picture on my print measures roughly 12.5" x 17.5".
- It was printed on a 1400 with OEM Claria using only 1 black ink (BO).
- As driver I used QTR with a self-made curve.
- Settings were at "Photo paper", 2880dpi, Uni-directional, ordered.
- I used my beloved Harman Gloss Baryta paper, which not only looks, but 
even smells like traditional silver-gelatine photo-paper.
- For the scan, I "cheated" a bit, scanning at 4800 bpi, applying subtle 
capture-sharpening in PS and then reducing the image to roughly the 
dimensions of Homer's scan (3x smaller, bicubic sharper). I did this to 
make sure one could appreciate the substantially finer dot pattern of 
QTR. Of course, if you looked at the original scan, you would be 
surprised how much more there is to be seen.

But here is the picture:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_kh_TJL6q5INzdibWxONU1aTmM&usp=sharing

In summary: a very satisfying B&W setup for anybody who wants to be able 
to do color with the same printer without changing inks, and who doesn't 
mind a tiny bit of micro-banding (not really visible to the eye, even 
with reading glasses). But, as Paul mentioned several times, not quite 
good enough for artwork that is to be sold. There, the carbon-6 setup on 
the same 1400 seems hard to beat. This is on matte paper though and thus 
a totally different story. (It reconciled me with matte printing though, 
which I used to hate in darkroom times. It has the depth of the old 
heliogravure on matte paper photo books, which I always admired and 
longed to reproduce. Thank you, Paul, for showing us the way!)

Louis