Digital BW, The Print

>Nick, if you ever develop a curve, let me know. I don't understand how to
>make one. (for legion photomatte paper)

Jerry -

Any curve I give you is unlikely to work unless you're using exactly the
same computer, printer, etc.

The principle is very simple, however: in the Photoshop Page Setup dialog
you will find at the bottom left a button labeled Transfer. Click that, and
you find a graph box with an (initially straight-line) curve, and a series
of fields labeled 0 through 100. These, and the curve, refer to the amount
of ink laid down by the printer in response to the image data sent by the
file.

Here is a suggested procedure:

- Set your monitor to some standard and easily repeatable condition; for
example, you could zero the contrast and brightness controls, and zero the
gamma in the Adobe Gamma utility. Write down these settings.

- Print out a test file (a smooth gradient, a 21-step wedge, a full-range
image, etc.) using whatever standard printer settings you have decided on.

- Compare the test file to the image on screen. If the highlights in the
test file look lighter than what's on screen, fiddle with the Transfer
Function curve (or enter an appropriate value) to get the printer to lay
down more ink in the highlights. Same idea for the shadows and midtones.
This is a trial-and(mostly)-error process that no doubt could be automated
with lots of expensive calibration hardware which I don't feel like buying.

- Eventually you will end up with a transfer function that largely
compensates for the difference between your screen image and your printer's
behavior with a given ink and paper and with a given group of settings.
Save and name the transfer function, and apply it every time you print with
that ink and paper.

-->  I remember reading somewhere that this can be done much more easily by
adjusting the screen image to match a printout, then somehow _inverting_
the resulting curve to create a Transfer Function, but now I can't find the
reference. Anybody know how to do that?

I have no idea whether any of this would work in color...

-- Nick

NICHOLAS HARTMANN                                +1 (414) 271-4890
611 N. Broadway, Suite 509                  fax: +1 (414) 271-4892
Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA                       polyglot@...

Technical and scientific translator:  German and French -> English