Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "craig_spaulding" 
<craig_spaulding@y...> wrote:
> Jeff,
> 
> Are you sure that the Epson driver with the Woolf workflow mixes 
all 
> the inks equally? I would expect to see dots in the 0-20% range, 
> which I don't? 

Yes (or at least pretty sure--maybe some Epson guru will set the 
record straight).  With only one curve, how would the driver know to 
lay down light gray ink at the light end of the gray scale and medium 
gray in the midtones etc or how much of each ink if the amounts were 
different? Note:  This control of each of the gray inks is the main 
advantage of the partitioned workflow (as well as less banding at the 
dark end on some folks printers). 

The Woolf lumped workflow and other similar workflows are really a 
two ink system, black and a combined middle gray.  You can clearly 
see the dither under a 10x loupe from the 5% step on up.  At normal 
viewing distances, the Woolf workflow does an excellent job (unless 
banding is a problem with your combination of factors).  
> 
> Would your method work equally as well with a CMYK setup. It seems 
> like it would and it might give even more control - especially over 
> the black?

I suppose so, but I haven't tried.  The workflow with the Epson 
controls only the 3 gray inks, the black ink is controlled by the 
driver. Black seems to kick in when the other 3 inks are greater than 
50% (assuming 0%=white and 100%=black).  You can see the effect in my 
partitioned RGB curves where the Red curve (which controls the cyan 
position dark gray ink) flattens out at about 50% as the black ink 
kick in (the other two curves are at 100%).

Happy Trails.

Jeff Randall