Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Austin Franklin" <
> >
> > There is nothing not optimal about it
> 
> Yes there is, it's an operation, and you're asking the scanner to decide
> what valid image data is.  That's non-optimal.
> 
> > it doesn't hurt the data in any
> > way.
> 
> WRONG.  How do you know that the scanner can just so happen to pick out the
> EXACT edges of the image data.  It absolutely CAN lose data.

okay, you're alot further off than I thought you were. You need to read 
more carefully or something. I was talking about expanding the entire 
range the scanner is capable of capturing. It has nothing to do with 
the image itself, chances are very good you will still end up needing 
to set the set points and expand (unless you don't want to for some 
reason)
 so every time, for every scan, it would expand the same range.

> > > > If you
> > > > want half your histogram empty you can always compress it with levels
> > > > later
> > >
> > > I don't want my histograms compressed.  I don't understand why you would
> > > either.  What I want is to set the setpoints, and then expand
> > the data to
> > > fill the histogram.  It can be done automatically, or manually.
> >
> > YOUR histograms start out compressed (with a raw scan)
> 
> But you said you could compress them if you wanted to. I was answering that.
> That is entirely different than the raw compressed histogram.

I was saying you could make the data that way if you wanted to.

> > Im not talking about setting setpoints and expanding your image. Im
> > talking about expanding the entire range the scanner is capable of.
> > If, for an unknown reason, you don't want the entire range used and you
> > want your whites to be gray, you can compress the range later (which is
> > why I said that, not because I want to)
> 
> How do you decide the setpoints?

The same way you always did.

> 
> > > > and you'll end up with the same thing. Why is the whitest a
> > > > scanner can capture NEVER white in raw scan mode? same with black?
> > >
> > > Because it's in the middle of the space.
> >
> > yes, but why do it that way? All it does is confuse beginners.
> 
> Cripes.  Beginners shouldn't be using raw data.  There is a certain level of
> understanding one has to have to understand how to do this right.  You're
> saying we should dumb down the imaging software simply for beginners?
> Please.

nothing is getting dumbed down at all. I am surprised more scanners 
don't do it automatically because it makes the scanner look better.

-mikeH