Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Brownlow" <lists@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2002 12:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Dynamic Range Definitions and Print Tones


> On 3/28/02 2:57 PM, "Martin Wesley" <mwesley250@...> wrote:
>
> > I do not see how you can directly "measure" the
> > dynamic range of a print. Perhaps in electronics you can.
>
> It seems simple to me.
>
> You get the print driver to output the lightest continuous (yeah I know)
> tone it is capable of short of not printing at all. You measure the
> reflectance of that patch.
>
> You measure the reflectance of the darkest tone it is capable of laying
> down.
>
> The dynamic range is the ratio between them, exactly as Kevin said.

John,

I completely agree with you and that is what I started out saying. My
response above was to Austin who said that you could measure it directly
without measuring the Dmin and Dmax individually.

>
> I don't know why you're all making it so damn complicated.

Sorry, I really don't mean too.
>
> Martin, if you think an inkjet print is a continuous tone, then for any
> shade of gray which Kevin prints using his printer and claims to be the
> lightest gray possible, you with your magic continuous printer, will be
able
> to print a lighter tone.
>
> I shall be interested to hear how you intend to do this.

Obviously you are limited by the range of Dmin and Dmax. Only within the
limits of Dmin and Dmax could you do that. Practically, don't you think that
if you wanted a certain tone in your print to be lighter by an amount equal
to Kevin's "lightness gray possible", you would have a good chance at doing
it in Photoshop? Back to my guitar string example. With a slide you can hit
any frequency within the range of any two points on the string. You can
slide from C to C# or hit anything in between. (Of course I would be happy
if I could hit one or the other but that's another story.)

Martin