Digital BW, The Print

I'd like to experiment with the curve you mentioned, but I couldn't 
find it at the Outback site. Could you direct me to it? Thanks.

Chris Hargens

 --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "A. Huntley" 
<prasepe@a...> wrote:
> Don't know if this message made it to the group because I received 
something back from Yahoo indicating that it bounced...so...I'm 
trying again...
> 
> I know this hasn't been discussed lately but, recently, I picked up 
a box of 8.5x11 EAM from my local CompUSA (batch 02CC2004M) for 
experimenting with some B&W conversions of color images. Immediately 
upon pulling the first print off the printer I noticed that it looked 
slightly different from what I was used to seeing. Remembering the 
discussions on this forum about "yellowish" EAM with newer lot 
numbers, I pulled out my trusty supply of "old" A3 EAM and compared 
the two. The newer paper was visibly more yellow than the old!
> 
> Feeling the desperation begin to set in--what will I print on when 
my A3 (my primary size) runs out?--I began experimenting with Photo 
Rag; my favorite paper when I used Piezo inks. I selected a grayscale 
image that I was very familiar with and began printing it using 
Paul's neutral-cool and warm-neutral curves along with gamma 
adjustments, and toner variation via the yellow slider. I should 
mention that all my quads are produced on an 1160 with MIS VM inkset, 
and Paul's curves for this printer. My goal was to match, as closely 
as possible, the same image previously printed with the Piezo driver 
and PiezoTone ST inks. Figuring that the ST inks had warmed some I 
knew that an exact match certainly wouldn't be possible. But, I was 
just looking for something close...and I think I found a possible 
solution. Using the warm-neutral curve with the yellow slider set on 
0 (that is, no change) and applying a +1 contrast adjustment curve 
that I downloaded from outbackphoto.com, I was able to produce just 
about the most stunning print of this particular image, to date. And, 
though the tonality was not exactly the same as the Piezo print 
(naturally) the overall and local contrast was just about a dead 
match. The VM print...somehow...look brighter, though! I was very 
excited, and plan to experiment with this technique further using 
other images.
> 
> Just thought I'd let the group know the ramblings of yet another 
quad printer pushing for something "a little different" and a "little 
better!"
> 
> Happy printing,
> Alan
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]