Digital BW, The Print

Thanks for the responses so far.  Re: the point about $150 for a 
custom profile v. the cost of wasted paper and inks -- fair point.  
However (and correct me if I'm wrong; I admit that I don't fully 
understand the digital workflow yet, as I am a relative novice at 
digital printing), wouldn't that be $150 PER PAPER TYPE?  Aren't 
custom profiles paper-specific?  Thus, if I standardize on 2 or 3 
papers for different purposes, that's $300 or $450, which adds up to 
a lot of paper and ink, particularly for someone like me interested 
in limited-volume, fine-art prints, and not large quantities of 
commercial prints?  For someone like me, it would take a long time 
before the wasted paper and ink plus the frustration factor added up 
to $450.  Plus the fact that if an interesting new paper comes out 
(or more to the point, while I'm still testing different types of 
papers), I'd have to get the new paper profiled too.

Or am I missing something about how profiles work?

Also, thanks to the person who responded about the Ilford Classic 
Pearl.  It would have been nice if Ilford had told me that this was 
the wrong paper for this printer when I called them....

Thanks!

> 
> Add up the cost of the wasted paper, plus the wasted ink, plus 
> your wasted time, plus the overal frustration, and then compare 
> that to $150 for a custom profile.
> 
> Or, stay where you are, trying to shoot a moving target. And get 
> up tomorrow morning, and try shooting it again.
> 
> And for the record, the custom profile won't even solve ALL of the 
> problems, but it at least gets you very much in the ballpark. But 
> just going through the complete process of setting up for the 
> profile forces you to think about and record every minute aspect 
> of your printing environment. This can only help in the long run.
> 
> Just my opinion.
> 
> MT, http://marktucker.com/