Digital BW, The Print

Martin and others,
Many thanks for the very useful information on the above subject. 
All of the replies contain the kind of information that I was 
looking for. 
I have just purchased a densitometer via Ebay. I am new to process 
printing terms, but I hope to learn more. 
I am really trying to get consistant results with my Piezo printing, 
my step wedges look good (with the MIS FS Neutral inks) the 
desitometer will tell me if the steps are really 10% apart on the 
paper that I am using...

Thanks again,

Barry

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley" 
<mwesley250@e...> wrote:
> Barry,
> 
> Of more use is a photospectrometer which will give you color 
information as
> well as density. Tyler Boley did a trial run for me using Dan 
Culbertson's
> RGB Softproof method of generating RGB separation curves for 
quad/hex inks.
> The goal was to come up with a set of curves for standard MIS VM 
ink on
> Photo Rag paper.
> 
> Look under SpectraTone Quads on the Lincoln Inks site:
> http://www.lincolninks.com/ for Dan's method.
> 
> Tyler had me print wedges using all of the different paper choices 
in the
> Epson driver that supported 1440dpi. This was done in a "No Color 
Control"
> mode to reduce the amount of control the Epson driver has. Tyler 
checked the
> wedges with his densitometer to find which had the best Dmax. 
Based on the
> Dmax and the quality of the tone ramp he chose to use the Matte
> Paper-Heavyweight setting.
> 
> Using these setting I printed out the test target for Tyler's 
SpectroStar
> Spectrocam photospectrometer (say that fast ten times<G>). I 
mailed the
> printed target to Tyler and he read it into his computer with the 
Spectrocam
> and the values were used by ColorVision's Profiler Pro to generate 
a
> monitor/ink/paper profile. This profile is not good enough to 
print with but
> it does give you an excellent on screen view. With this on screen 
view you
> can then apply RGB separation curves to a wedge file and see the 
results
> without printing them out.
> 
> This got the curves in very good shape in a single iteration. Then 
from a
> couple of printouts of wedges Tyler was able to dial the curves in.
> 
> While this method does not automate curve building which still 
needs to be
> done manually, it does speed up the process. You also wind up with 
a monitor
> profile for that ink and paper combination. The result is true 
WYSIWYG gray
> ink printing where you actually see the color of the ink and of 
the paper
> base on screen. This drastically speeds up the process of getting 
a good
> print.
> 
> Once it is set up I haven't seen anything to beat if for B&W photo 
printing.
> 
> In comparing wedges for my 1280 running under Windows 2000 I think 
the
> smoothest are from the Piezo driver, Tyler's 08 curve and Paul's 
vmp8-mw16
> with very little difference, if any in quality. Tyler's mw02 and 
Paul's
> vmp8-nc16 are almost as good.
> 
> I don't think that we are paying enough attention to color 
management with
> the grayscale inks. You should calibrate your scanner, your 
monitor and
> match your monitor view to your prints. The loop should be closed 
from start
> to finish. This is not a requirement and you can still make 
excellent prints
> without this kind of management but I think you are missing some 
of the
> advantages digital printing has to offer.
> 
> Martin Wesley
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "flyfishingusa2002" <tflyfish@c...>
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y...>
> Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 9:52 AM
> Subject: [Digital BW] Calibrating System?
> 
> 
> > Hi All,
> > Is there anyone using Quad inks that uses a densitometer to
> > calibrate their system? If you do could you please let us know 
what
> > model densitometer you might use? I am using a windows XP system 
and
> > are considering the purchase of a X- rite densitometer.
> > I think that it would be a acurate way to set up the monitor and 
to
> > check the dot gain on my 3000.
> > Any comments?
> >
> > Barry
> >