Digital BW, The Print

Thanks to Joe and Matt who replied and said,

"You don't need PS, but you do need a graphics program that allows you
to use the PS curves supplied by Paul Roark and others.", and "You need
a program that understands photoshop curves (*.acv)."

I guess a big part of my problem is that since I don't use PS, I don't
know what the photoshop curves really are.  I'm using Thumbs Plus, which
I love, and it also gives me great looking color prints from my computer
on my 740 (as opposed to PhotoDeluxe and MS Picture It which often
don't).  If the "curves" are various degrees of adjustment of contrast,
RGB color, gamma, etc, then I can do all of that in Thumbs Plus.  But I
doubt it understands any .acv file, so does that mean I'd have to
essentially make up my own curves to get the proper prints looking like
I like?

My limited understanding thus far is that I'd essentially just be
replacing the color chambers with various shades of black ink, so
shouldn't I be able to adjust the image color myself and get the proper
highlights, midtones, and shadows?  I'm expecting to waste some paper
and ink of course.

I should mention that I plan on using my 740 and the MIS inks for
printing digital images taken with my D100, which would then be
converted to B&W by desaturating the colors (If I was shooting film I'd
just go ahead and print the thing optically and save myself all this
trouble).  So the images will start (and stay) in the sRGB color space.
I've been able to get really nice B&W prints this way using color inks,
but the metamerism is the major problem.  If I save the image
desaturated, then apply very slight degrees of magenta, I can get it
looking very neutral under florescent or tungsten light, but in daylight
it's still slightly green.

So in summary, what I'm trying to do is shoot an image with my D100,
desaturate it and save it as a B&W (still in sRGB color space) using
Thumbs Plus, Adjust the highlights, midtones, and shadows by using the
color adjustments in Thumbs Plus, then print it on my 740 using MIS
Quadtone inks.  Does this make sense?

Thanks,
Ed
http://lightandsilver.com