Digital BW, The Print

Paul,

This is great. Thank you. You appear to have found, as I did that 
with modern Epson 6 color printers it is not necessary to partition 
the curves to get dot-free highlights. Shadow smoothness may be 
another matter. Clearly, this means that an inkset with no curves 
adjustment (WYSIWYP) is possible, perhaps with minor adjustment to 
account for printer-to-priter variabilities. I bielive the FS inks 
are very close to acheiving this. I have more or less abandoned 
partitioned work-flows in favor of the FS inks with a global curve.

I did rough density measurents (scanner based) on Epson color dyes 
and the FS Quads, and I believe the FS inks loaded in the following 
order will require very small curves adjustments (I will try them in 
a couple of days):

CcMmYK (inks positions) = CYCYMK (FS inks) or Dark, Light, Dark, 
Light, Medium, Black. This is slightly different from my current ink 
positions of CcMmYK = CMCMYK.

Shilesh

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Paul Roark" 
<paul.roark@v...> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> For 1270 and 870 owners, a new set of Photoshop image adjustment 
curves has
> been posted in the Files section of this forum.  The Files section 
is at:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/files/
> 
> From there go to:  > Ink Sets, reviews and techniques > MIS 
Variable Mix >
> 870 and 1270 Curves
> 
> Martin has put all the curves in a Zip file that also includes a 
text file
> with the setting information.
> 
> These curves use different settings than the older 1270 curves.  
The first
> difference is that the Epson driver color management setting 
is, "No Color
> Adjustment."  So the sliders are disabled.  But, the trade-off is 
that the
> curves should be cross-platform. (The names have a prominent "NCA" 
in them
> to remind me and others of this change.)
> 
> I wrote the curves on an 870-PC platform.  So, I'd be most curious 
how they
> work on a 1270-Mac platform.
> 
> These curves also use paper-type setting of Matte Heavy Weight, not 
Photo
> Quality Ink Jet.  The curves, as usual, were written for Epson
> Archival/Enhanced Matte.
> 
> The curves also are written for Adobe RGB (1998) working space.  (I 
set the
> Color Settings (under "Edit") first to PS 5 defaults and then just 
change
> the RGB working space to Adobe RGB (1998).)
> 
> I've re-named the "mw" curve the "nw" curve.  When this curve is 
used with
> EAM, the print is initially dead neutral in the mid-ranges -- 
according to
> the X-Rite densitometer I used to write the curves.  (Of course, 
the paper
> tone affects the highlights, and the warm black affects the deep 
shadows.)
> So, the "nw" curve starts neutral but will warm to medium warm.
> 
> Note also that one of the curves is a grayscale printing curve.  
There is no
> RGB mode conversion in the workflow for this curve.  Just apply the 
curve
> and print.  (Be careful not to save an altered file, which will not 
be as
> obvious as in the RGB workflows.)  The print is 0.01 unit cool in 
the
> lighter tones and a bit cooler in the shadows, with a maximum 0.03 
cool at
> 65-70%.  (These modern, hextone Epsons clearly do not need 
partitioning
> curves to get smooth highlights.)
> 
> Let me know how these new curves work on your 1270s.
> 
> Paul
> http://www.PaulRoark.com