Digital BW, The Print

Hi Terry,

Great information. Thank you. I actually did a color calibration of the iPF6300 about two  months ago, so I think I am good there. You say that non Canon papers are not optimized fully in the Canon plug-in for the ABW equivalent, perhaps that is part of my problem here. Maybe the custom profiles made for me on the Epson papers are not going to give me good results across the board. I have not mentioned this, but I am having some trouble matching my color prints also. When soft-proofing I have to make significantly more changes than I think I should to more closely get a match. That being said, I have soft-proofed with the Canon RC photo paper equivalent and do not see any improvement. Can I safely say that because the Canon profile does the same thing that my Epson profile is good?

Lastly, from what I have read, it looks like QTR does not support Canon printers. Am I to assume that the QTR-Create-ICC utility will work with the Canon?

Jim


On Tuesday, October 28, 2014 12:32 AM, "Terry Ritz t.ritz@... [DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint]" <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 


  
"japty4644@... [DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint]"  (Jim) wrote:

=====
I have a Canon iPF6300 that I have been using for about 18 months. I have
not been happy with my B and W prints. They usually contain a cast of some
sort. I know this is relatively common, but I would like to know how to
print without seeing a cast. I process using PS CC and I use the Canon
plug-in to print. I have been doing some reading and it is very daunting,
to say the least.
=====

Jim, I have an Epson 3800 running Paul Roark's 5KPlus ink set ("6KPlus"
actually) and a Canon 8300. I have been able to make prints that are
"neutral", for all intents and purpose, on both. Here are my observations
& thoughts. . . . 

- I have printed neutral image files using my 8300 on Breathing Color Lyve
/ Crystalline canvases, on Epson Hot Press Natural and on Canson Rag
Photographique using colour printer profiles. They appear neutral to my
eye and in the case of Hot Press Natural, measurably neutral as well (for
all intents and purposes). I create my own profiles but the Crystalline
prints were done using a Breathing Color provided profile. My Lyve profile
and the BC Crystalline profile produced very similar results, using the
same image. I've had no problems with a colour cast on any of these media.

- Have you run the Colour Calibration process on your 6300 lately? If you
have, then as Paul Roark suggested earlier in the thread, perhaps you have
a bad profile.

- The 8300 has the equivalent of Epson's ABW mode within the Canon
plug-in. That's probably worth experimenting with. However, it will not be
optimized for non-Canon papers so I suggest getting QTR and using the
QTR-Create-ICC utility to ensure you have linear prints.

- I experimented with the BowHaus RIP when I first purchased my Canon
8300. I was unable to properly linearize the test paper, Canson Rag
Photographique, with the demo so I used one of the provided profiles along
with QTR-Create-ICC. The profile used only the Canon black/grey inks. The
result, after using QTR-Create-ICC, was almost perfectly linear and for
all intents and purposes "neutral" as well. Lab *a and *b were below 2
from paper white to 75% black. The largest *b value was 3.1 (slightly
yellow) at 90%. Below are the actual readings, which are pretty good
considering no colour inks were used. . . .

%Black Lab_L Lab_A Lab_B
0	97.914412	0.277402	1.390549
5	94.070512	0.502294	1.444087
10	90.348987	0.48239	1.550018
15	86.091218	0.410229	1.615753
20	81.754699	0.404984	1.394908
25	77.574244	0.349306	1.254556
30	73.61141	0.509453	1.126821
35	69.78632	0.581926	1.169478
40	65.663306	0.548883	1.209908
45	61.65196	0.629594	1.107829
50	57.823704	0.443188	1.26834
55	53.741271	0.349384	1.395841
60	50.05392	0.466648	1.265853
65	45.593471	0.334977	1.415265
70	42.179273	0.312324	1.498431
75	37.451986	0.432116	1.955484
80	32.752244	0.613098	2.474799
85	27.991444	0.921098	2.949864
90	23.387742	1.091347	3.136949
95	18.478925	1.073971	2.410161
100	16.509067	0.870133	1.915554

- The 6KPlus ink set in my 3800 will print on gloss or matte. It uses 6
shades of MIS carbon ink plus light magenta and light cyan for toning. I
created a curve for Epson Hot Press Natural that I consider "neutral". It
starts at paper white with a Lab *b value of 3.5 (slightly warm) and
elegantly ramps down to "neutral", staying under a Lab *b value of 1.35
all the way from 20% black to 100% black. This requires relatively little
LM and LC. Of course I can also dial in some very nice warm tones between
pure carbon and neutral, with 6KPlus. Here is what my neutral curve looks
like. . . . 

%Black Lab_L Lab_A Lab_B

0	97.21902	0.444765	3.416683
5	92.771992	0.413539	3.171586
10	89.079454	0.342034	2.652913
15	84.329699	0.301518	2.264897
20	80.226365	0.459246	1.728524
25	76.459769	0.631755	1.179251
30	72.229625	0.774666	0.773441
35	67.821841	0.983371	0.771919
40	63.940584	1.109585	0.871965
45	60.26883	1.176778	0.951358
50	56.027104	1.129266	1.106286
55	51.40514	0.88	1.097802
60	47.485985	0.827898	1.215913
65	43.696999	0.752749	1.008713
70	39.118623	0.710167	0.6684
75	35.555005	0.708935	0.392494
80	31.253296	0.627695	0.314805
85	26.649924	0.488817	0.246863
90	23.243022	0.446861	0.224412
95	19.048687	0.317759	0.311058
100	14.74267	0.24339	0.338531

Best wishes in your pursuit!!

Terry.