Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Austin Franklin" <darkroom@i...> wrote:
> and BTW...
> 
> > ... It
> > renders more than 1,000 gray values in 8-bit mode.
> 
> I believe 100, not 1000...you simply can't have more than 256 values in an 8
> bit byte...
> 
> > The new
> > PiezographyBW Pro24 renders more than 4,000 gray values in 16-bit mode."
> 
> I don't know that is true either...as it's not the number of bits here that
> matters, but the number of inks, and the ability to actually dither them to
> make that many tones...haven written many dithering/halftone algorithms for
> pre-press output devices, I'm very skeptical of the accuracy of this
> statement.

Austin, starting with a 16 bit grayscale file, then preparing it for quad printing though a RIP remaining entirely in 16 bit in 
very much the same way Piezography does for you behind the scenes, yeilds a file that has 29,037 "unique colors" (levels). 
This is determined with a cool little utility written by Bruce Linbloom.
Even after converting it to 8 bit, it reports 1,495 levels.
Keep in mind these are 4 channel files. Some of this will be lost from channel (read ink) overlap, much will be lost because 
the Epson will round off to make it's dots, some will also be lost in the texture of the paper or our inability to determine the 
way an ink/paper combo differentiates those values.
Even with all that, 4000 may not be an outrageous claim.
Tyler