Digital BW, The Print

Today I've been reading the archive about 
OpenPrintMaker and have been attempting to 
hold and organize all the relevant details 
and variations in my head at once.

My head is not suited to such a challenge.

But I can, especially thanks to Paul Roark's 
generous post, feel pretty confident about 
the first steps of choosing a particular 
printer to work with, and a particular ink. 
Actually 'achieving it' will probably take a 
week or so to get those two things 
functioning on a spare table in my work 
room. Then, I believe my head will be ready 
to SEE some initial output, and then be 
ready to consider whether Antonis's 
OpenPrintMaker and InkjetControl will make 
sense for the following week's focus.

A week or two isn't long - though it may be 
even longer if my regular work keeps me busy 
cranking color prints out of my 9600.

But... I have a VISION of something that 
would help. Help all of us maybe, but at 
least me - 52 year old guy with 37 years 
experience in wet darkrooms (and three sons 
ages 2, 4 and 6, which I'm certain has SOME 
effect on my limited brain power of late).

A detailed chart (of some kind), or maybe a 
web site of individual pages dedicated to 
the description and presentation of various 
list members' methods, materials, and 
evaluations. It could be set up like a 
database, so you could select those who use 
7000's or 2200's, or those who use MIS Ultra 
Tones or Selenium Piezotones.

This might not include just anybody who 
wanted to be included (like a print exchange 
might) - but this could be intended to 
describe the 'more successful' or more 
'satisfactory' solutions that people have 
come up with for producing great black & 
white prints. Each 'solution' would have 
'Pros' and 'Cons' and maybe be written 
somewhat like 'reviews' of each system. Some 
might just describe incomplete 'experiments 
in progress'...

Exactly how it's set up would require more 
thinking, and some work - but it could be 
immensely useful. We could say things about 
how things work together that aren't being 
said anywhere else.

The physical structure of an eGroup doesn't 
make "grasping the big picture" of someone's 
setup so easy to grasp -- but some OTHER 
KIND of structure could somehow be created
for our members.

My vision is that each description would be 
designed to function as a mini-visit to 
someone's HOME with an overview of how they 
do their printing. Certain people would have 
multiple listings, if they have more than 
one way of making their prints.

Maybe everybody (who wants to) SHOULD be 
part of it, because some people who do many 
things wrong, like those who've not yet 
calibrated their monitors (like me!) yet 
somehow still manage to make wonderful 
prints on a regular basis.

I'll stop with this, for now. It's late and 
I'm bleary eyed. Maybe it couldn't work. 
Maybe I should hop in a car or plane and 
just visit everyone in person and write it 
up in a book, or maybe Tim Rudman will. But 
that's a ways off at best. Unlikely at the 
least.

But I'd be willing to set up a dedicated web 
site - if there was sufficient interest. 
Yes? No?

I may regret this in the morning, but I hope not.

Clark Thomas
www.simplephotographs.com