Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Paul Roark" 
<paul.roark@v...> wrote:
<snipped for brevity>

> I would appreciate any commentary on the pros and cons of this 
approach by
> those who have used it or found a better way to match the monitor to 
the
> print.
> 
> Paul

Paul, I have been trying to match monitor to print for about eight 
years now, and my procedure is almost identical to yours, excepting 
that early pshop versions had different abilities to render dotgain 
curves and embedded profiles.

And I do first use a profiler to calibrate monitor- which is not the 
same as adjusting monitor for dotgain to match print. I used to use 
Adobe Gamma, but have gone to Photocal.

I would like to point out one important addition, and for me it is the 
most critical step: You must have a simulated viewing light source 
that you expect the print to be "typically" viewed under. This means 
type of light (tungsten, daylight, a mixture etc), spread of beam, 
intensity, distance from print while viewing, on and on. You can't 
choose an ideal light, there is no one standard. I think Cone used a 
light table rigged with a dimmer somehow... Then you need to have a 
fast acting switch so you can flick the light on and off easilily and 
fast.


Then you look at the print with the light ON, remember how it looks 
and flip the light off and turn to the monitor and after allowing a 
few seconds for the pupils to adjust examine monitor to see how well 
it matches the LIGHTED print- since this is how print will be viewed- 
under a light. It takes a little practice, but you get the hang of it 
after awhile. You keep going back and forth, flipping the light and 
take good guesses. People shoudn't be frustrated if they don't get it 
perfect first time- it took me a months to hone my first dotgain 
corrections. 

I totally agree with dropping the profile when opening up the file and 
that converting to workspace is really bad news, at least for your 
workflow- providing that the RGB space is set properly per your 
instructions and workspace for greyscale is set to gamma 2.2. This 
way, everything opened up in pshop that is greyscale that had it's 
profile stripped off will be in gamma 2.2 and convert to sRGB or Adobe 
RGB as needed.
Jim H.