Digital BW, The Print

Regarding multiple passes of the same sheet on a press, I did try running a
print through my 1160 twice to try to lay down a denser black. First I ran
the print through as normal, then I made a mask which allowed for printing
only of the lower values of the print. I wanted to leave the mid tones and
highlights alone on the 2nd pass, but double up the blacks. Good news and
bad. Good: perfect registration (if anyone is going to try this I recommend
you do immediately successive passes on the same printer, so that the paper
guide and everything is exactly as it was on the first pass. Bad: no visible
density difference. Now if I did two passes over the entirety of the print
it'd double the density, and the whole print would be (was) a stop darker,
but by just doubling up the blacks *I* did not see the benefit.

Oh well...

Now, if you could/can get exact registration on two printers you could do
some very interesting toning effects by printing colors over quads, for
instance. Not that any one should want to, but it does make for some
interesting possibilities.

Todd

> Mark,
> The double hit of black your referring to is accomplished by running
> two printers (ie. ink rollers) both loaded with black ink.  In areas of
> solid black, the additional printer lays down another layer of black
> ink (actually beneath the main ink layer).  This effectively increases
> the DMax by further blocking light to the sheet, and produces better
> depth.  This method also works well when running a duotone with, say,
> black and a PMS gray ink.  As with Piezography, the tonal range is
> divided up between the 2 inks, the gray handles the highs, black the
> lows with some mixing in the midtones.  Again, the gray, which goes
> onto the sheet first, underlays the blacks in the deep shadows,
> allowing better maximum black as in the above scenario.  The ultimate
> print is achieved by adding still more printers with additional grays
> to continue to divide the tonal range, and perhaps a gloss varnish for
> the silver print look.  This is where the idea for quad black printing
> initially came from.
> 
> Cheers,
> Phil
> http://philbard.com
> 
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Mark Tucker" <mark@m...>
> wrote:
>> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley"
>> <mwesley250@e...> wrote:
>>> This leads me to wonder what you could do with a duo-ink
>> system. Use 
>>> the black and a 50% dilution of the black.
>> 
>> In commercial offset printing, there is a technique known as
>> "double-dot black" printing. I did a poster in that method years
>> ago. I don't know any of the details about it, but my guess is that
>> it's a "budget" way to pump up the richness of the blacks, while
>> still running one color of black only. (If I'm wrong, someone
>> correct me here). So this would be similar to what you're
>> suggesting.
>> 
>> I just shot a calendar this week for a liquor company. They're
>> known to print only b/w in their ads, and I mean one hit of black
>> only. The designer is nudging them to try to get them to at least
>> spring for a double-dot black, to add as much depth as possible.
>> 
>> Also in commercial printing, there is general acceptance that you
>> get more richness if you print at least a duotone, a tritone, or
>> even CMYK-neutral to get the most richness out of a B/W image.
>> It makes sense, since you're stacking up all those layers of ink.
>> But wasn't it pretty stunning to see what just ONE hit of black-only
>> could do with the Epson? I totally agree with you about the look of
>> a "B/W photograph". I wish there was a way to run the Black
>> channel at full strength, but then be able to back down all the
>> other five inks in my 7000 to about quarter-strength, to add some
>> richness, but also to eliminate that pesky color crossover.
>> 
>> -http://marktucker.com
> 
> 
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