Digital BW, The Print

(This is more or less cut-n-pasted from a response to off-list email from Clayton, but I thought the group would appreciate it.)

I am actually right this minute running a black-only test of a portrait I shot the other day. I'm curious. (Skeptical, but curious :) ) 

I just got mine off the printer - the first black-only print in quite some time for me. It's ok, probably even good, but not excellent. Dots are definitely noticeable (Printed at 1440 on Legion Matte) but not from standard viewing distance. Highlights are brighter than they would be on a hextone, contrast is probably a bit high though there's reasonable shadow detail. The thing I really notice when I hold this next to the VM print is that the black-only print lacks depth - I think this is because of the heightened contrast. The VM print has this just inky blackness to the shadows and the highlights feel like they are glowing out from it, more like a gravure, where the black-only print (I refuse to call it BO, I want a less smelly abbreviation ;) ) just feels flat to me. I did get some microbanding too, but I know that's fixable so I'm not too stressed about that.

I should say also that I am a printmaker by training which gives me a somewhat different take on these issues than some people - I spent years of my life trying to get the perfect halftone to minimize dot patterns, so I'm somewhat obsessed with not seeing such things in inkjet prints.

I should also say, speaking as a high-school photo teacher - if one of my kids brought something very similar to the black-only print I just made out of the darkroom and asked what I thought, I would probably say "Hey! That's a great print! The contrast might be a titch high, but not bad!"