Digital BW, The Print

Jerry,

You wrote:

>Paul, on your web site you mention that VM-Sepia covers Sepia to
>neutral. Could you describe the neutral?

Short answer:  I essentially matched my lightly-selenium-toned silver prints
through the midtones, using a spectrophotometer (densitometer) for accuracy.
At the ends, of course, the paper color and black ink color dominate.  I
think it is the most neutral inkjet print I've seen.

On 3/5 I posted the following long answer:

...

On the neutral end of the VM-Sepia's tone range, I've made a new curve that
fine-tunes the existing ones to deliver a neutral print.  For this, my
target was the tone of my lightly-selenium-toned Kodak Polymax Fine Art
fiber-based silver prints.  The silver-print mid-tones I read with the
X-Rite spectrophotometer (densitometer) are very neutral with a slight bias
to magenta and to "cool" (cyan density being equal to or slightly above the
yellow density).  In the shadows, the tones get a bit cooler as they get
deeper.

With the MIS VM-Sepia inkset the end points are set by the paper in the
highlights and by the black ink in the deep shadows.

With EAM, the paper reads C=0.04, M=0.04, Y=0.02 (or 0.02 units cool, with a
magenta bias). So, the highlights are going to be slightly cool.  (Note that
an aged EAM with it's brighteners burned-out has a reading of C=0.04,
M=0.04, Y=0.05 -- slightly warm.  But note also that my silver print also
yellowed slightly after only 100 hours in my fader.  Longer term tests of
silver prints are waiting until I get around to making comparable 21-step
test prints.  Now I just have to take similar readings off actual prints.)

The MIS VM black is typically 0.03 units warm (yellow density more than cyan
density).  This is the major deviation from my selenium-toned silver prints.

So, with the end points defined by the paper and black ink, here is what
I've been able to get as a "neutral" MIS VM-Sepia print.

Like the paper white, the 5% patch is 0.02 units cool; the 10% - 25% patches
are 0.01 units cool.  The 25% reading is C=0.29, 0.29, 0.28.  (Compare the
silver print reading of C=0.33, M=0.33, Y=0.32.)

From 30% to 70% the test patches are neutral, with cyan = magenta = yellow.
In some readings the slight magenta bias shows up, but it is mostly beyond
the X-Rite's accuracy to consistently read the bias.  At 50% the readings
are C=0.61, M=0.61, Y=0.61.  (Compare this to a similar reading of my toned
silver print: C=0.58, M=0.58, Y=0.58.)

At about 75% the roll-off to the slightly warm black starts slowly.  The 80%
& 85% patches are 0.01 units warm, 90% & 95% are 0.02 units warm, and 100%
is typically 0.03 units warm.

The curve that I wrote that achieved the above is called VM3kpS-Blf-V-N.  It
is closer to the standard VM "medium-warm" (MW) curve than to the "warm" (w)
curve.  The gray ink in the system is the same as the FS-N ink, which should
be re-named the FS-cool ink.  The production FS-N is actually 0.03 units
cool at the 50% patch.  With the typical VM "warm" curve the cross-over from
the slightly cool midtones to the slightly warm deep shadows is too abrupt
for my tastes.  Between the warm black ink and the sepia toner, I was seeing
the cross-over in test strips from the 3000 (though not so much with the
1160 -- every printer type may be different).

With the VM-Sepia "neutral" curve for the 3000, my goal was to match my
silver prints as much as can be done with the inks that are available.  The
surface differences are the main visual differences, but those disappear
when the matte paper is put under glass.  The deep shadow tones are
different, but they are essentially hidden by the darkness of the tones.
So, overall, I think the match is quite good.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com