Digital BW, The Print

I did my own BO vs. Hex test by printing (1280) four different
7.5x10.5 images twice. Once with MIS VM and Roark workflow and once
black only with 1280 Epson driver. Each matched pair was on the same
paper, same 1440 dpi, no different Photoshop adjustments except for
the Roark curves. 

Then I laid out the four pairs for a very critial well published fine
art photographer who lives on grants, print sales and teaching
photography. He is a master b&w wet darkroom printer (MF & 4x5) but
who knows nothing of digital printing.  I only told him the pairs were
printed by different methods without saying which were by the similar
method and please comment on the differences. I know him to be very
critical. 

He had nitpicks (other than my basic photography skill)But he never
said that one had better tonal transitions than the other. Nor did he
ever say one had bigger dots than the other. No comments about any
aspect of BO vs quad/hex being discussed here. 

Finally, I asked him to pick which of the pairs he liked best. He had
problems making the decision but finally picked the BO print of each
of the four pairs. 

I'm NOT a missionary trying to convince the world that 1280 BO is as
good / better than quadtone. I'm too old and beat up for that. I'm
only trying to understand why my 1280 BO prints look as good as my
hextones (Roark & Woolf workflows with appropriate inksets). I
honestly don't think I'm that bad at digital printing though I
certainly have seen those much better than me.

I'm still open to ideas.

Bob Michaels 

Finally, I asked him   --- In
DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Frost"
<bobfrost@b...> wrote:
> Peter,
> 
> Surely that depends on the viewing distance? I've just looked at
some 18x12
> black-only prints (from a 1280/90) and at arms length or further I
cannot
> see any dots (with or without corrected eyesight). But if I look at them
> from a few inches with reading glasses I can see the dotty nature of
light
> areas. If I look at any print with a x10 magnifier I can see dots in
all of
> them, however they were printed.
> 
> So, it's horses for courses; if I print large prints to be hung on a
wall
> and viewed at a normal viewing distance, black-only prints are totally
> satisfactory (unless I want tinted ones). If I print 6x4's that
people are
> going to have to look at closeup, then black-only prints will not be
> satisfactory.
> 
> Bob Frost.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "peter nelson" <peter@s...>
> >
> > Maybe not YOUR naked eye, but I can see the 1280's dots
> > just fine!
> >
> > I've long suspected that the people who like black-only printing
> > simply don't have good close visual acuity.  A lot of people as
> > they get older and suffer from presbyopia find that they just
> > can't focus closely - black-only printing is ideal for them.