Digital BW, The Print

> First is to know when I have reached the D I want for a particular image.

Seth,

this first requirement is easy to achieve with either instrument (densito- or 
spectrophoto-). There is just one caveat: If you are reading actual prints, you 
need something that can reach into the image area, and usually handheld 
instruments are used for that (of either variety).


> 
> Second, to know if there is a colorcast in the ink so I can correct (?!?!)
> it.
> 
> Where it has been driving me nuts is doing B&W's from color images.  PS 
SAYS
> the grays are neutral, but I see color in one end or the other.  It would be
> simple to just dump the color layers from the images. But, I am laying the
> B&W over the color original (in PS), then wanting to print with just certain
> "spots" in color.  Therefore, I have to stay in RGB mode.

Should I assume you are printing on a color printer (i.e. one with a full gamut 
color inkset)? If so, your best bet by far is a color profile that is tweaked to 
maintain the gray axis - not the easiest of excercises. Or else... drivers like 
ImagePrint that have already done the homework for you.  

A spectrophotmeter  is always more appropriate when color is involved. The 
big limitation of  color densitometers is that their built-in cutoff filters are tuned 
to a particular photographic process (E6, C41 etc) and can't read color 
accurately outside of that. 

Antonis




> 
> Does that sound as though I need to have both pieces of equipment?
> 
> Seth
> 
> =don't know about the 308, but any of the DTP autoscans usually assume 
> =some software support that generates the targets. A simpler 
> =instrument would 
> =be more useful for bw where you really only need to read a few 
> =patches (26 in 
> =the case of IJC) as opposed to color where you can be reading hundreds.
> =
> =The dilemma for many people who do both color and bw is 
> =whether to buy a 
> =densitometer for a few hunder $ from eBay and then have to buy 
> =a fancy strip 
> =reading spectrophotometer for heavy duty color profiling. It 
> =takes jumping 
> =through a few hoops to get the strip readers to read a simple 26-step 
> =grayscale a step at a time.
> =