Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Austin Franklin" <darkroom@i...> wrote:
> Hi Tyler,
> > 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).
> 
> Well, no, 16 bits is 64k unique levels. 
I'm just giving you an example, from a specific file that was processed as I descibed, not the ideal. 29,037 levels was the 
reported resuly from that particular file. Also an example of how destructive separations can be, even in 16 bit.

> Anyway, that isn't relevant.  The
> printer simply can not produce that many different levels, without
> sacrificing overall output resolution,
as I said.

> and besides, the human eye can
> absolutely not discern them.
Probably not.
> 
> > This is determined with a cool little utility written by Bruce Linbloom.
> > Even after converting it to 8 bit, it reports 1,495 levels.
> 
> 8 bits only allows 256 levels.  It is PHYSICALLY impossible to get more than
> 256 levels from 8 bits.
Per channel, Austin, per channel. You started with a one channel file, it became four behind the scene.
> 
> > Keep in mind these are 4 channel files.
> 
> No, they are not.  They are B&W files.  Grayscale.  That means only ONE
> channel.
See above, and it is a four channel driver, as I am using a four channel RIP.

> I'm going to guess you're not thinking clearly about this, since I know you
> know better...
Well, I know enough to know how quad files are properly created from gray files, manually or the automatic Piezography 
way.
That doesn't mean I ever think clearly though.
Tyler