Digital BW, The Print

on 8/22/01 9:35 AM, Nicholas Hartmann wrote:

> 2) In addition to the dots, the VM set displays what I can only call
> "posterization": areas that, on the screen, show subtle variations in tone,
> are rendered on paper as comparatively large patches of a single tone.

Nick,

What printer are you using again?

Anyway, I'm using an 1160 (4 inks) with a piezo/generations equivalent to
the current MIS VT system.

I think something must be off in your workflow. I have had times where I got
this posterization in my prints, and I'm trying hard to remember what was
the fix, but it was something in my workflow, like a proper driver setting.
Try printing a 21 step grayscale. All your steps should separate distinctly.
The system is capable of better results than you are getting! My VT system
handles the "Piezo challenge" test and yours should too.

I think your dots may also be atypical of the system. But truth be told,
while I advocate a print of any size should hold up to the highest scrutiny
with your eye 2 inches from it, and mine do, I'm not at all concerned with
how they look under magnification. If I were an ant I might care about that,
but I'm not. ;-)

But do double check everything with your MIS VT setup, and make sure you've
got the latest curves for your printer.

Anyway, if your happy with your black-only output that's cool, it's a look,
but you do already have materials there that can vastly out perform it over
the long haul, if made to work properly. Unless of course you just really
like that gritty look. Why did you go to the black-only approach over
printing grayscale with all the color inks in the first place? My 1270 can
print as good, if not better print than my 1160 quad (Not as neutral, but
the right curves can give a nice selenium tone, or whatever tone is desired
other than neutral), but I wanted those long lived carbon inks. But said the
other way, my 1160 VT system is capable of printing just about as good as my
1270 with OEM inks, and yours should too.

Todd