Digital BW, The Print

Loris wrote:
  I tried to output by using this method and the tone
  separation was better compared to the no-curves-applied output. The
  problem is that the curve is thinning the image - increasing the gamma I
  presume - I get a much lighter image than what I see on my screen (in
  the other hand, Randall's workflow output matches my monitor quite
  good). What should I do?
I am using this kind of approach with great success. The only difference is
that I am measuring the output density with a densitometer and then
calculate a PS curve from these data in order to "correct" the Piezo output
(smoothing the curve is 90% of the trick). The nice thing is that I got rid
of the posterization and flat midtones.

It is also my experience that the Piezo print are "lighter" than those made
with Randall's curves. The slope of the output densitiy curve (21 step
image) in the highlights is less than the slope in the darks. This is ok for
me because the eye is more sensitive to highlights than to dark tones. The
rest is a question of a good printer profile to get a perfect match of the
monitor.

As you described you can also measure the dot gain curve of your
printer/ink/paper combination and use this as a (first approach) soft proof
in PS (with gamma 2.2 as working space or whatever you want). I did this and
only had to make small changes for an excellent monitor match (visual dot
gain).

Yes, you may have icc-calibrated your system, but you are still missing a
printer profile unless you are doing this kind of measurement or adjusting a
dot gain curve manually and use this as a soft proof. Cone's information is
a bit misleading because he is speaking of paper profiles but these are not
icc profiles and the first time user assumes that all she/he has to do is to
press the print button and get a perfect print. I think that there is no way
to change the (old) software and make it a bit more modern. Let's wait for
the new software.

Regarding the microbanding: I also had strong microbanding until I did two
things:
1. playing around with the paper height setting of my 1160 and adjusting via
software the heads and comparing the results. It seemed that the lowest
possible paper setting was best in my case.
2. When I am printing test prints on half of A4 paper I still have
microbanding but not in the final output on A3+ paper. I think that this has
something to do with the lower resolution of the final print (usually about
500 dpi) in contrast to the extreme high resolution of the small test print
(sometimes > 1200 dpi).

Don't play with the "gamma" setting of the Piezo software. I In PS you know
what you are doing and you can easily compare different settings.

Peter Baumbach



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