Digital BW, The Print

Now that is a lot of testing info Dan, I'm 
saving this post.

One of the very difficult things to resolve 
was the variation in hue of the Spectratones 
on different media.  As it turned out, the 
theta set (only one released to the public) 
shows very good neutrals on all of the media 
that I recommed as rock solid stability.

And, on the media it doesn't last long on, 
some rather wide color variations to which I 
don't even want to try and figure out, 
especially clay coated media.

Again, thanks for the hard numbers.  I just 
eyeball my stepwedges as a perceptual kind 
of guy anymore.  I go by "if it feels good, 
it's good".  I concur with your observations 
on d-max not being the whole enchilada, 
especially on art type papers.

Allen Maertz
lincolninks.com


Message: 13
   Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2001 20:04:58 -0700
   From: Dan Culbertson <
danculb@...>
Subject: Spectratone Dmax Envy

For those of you with Spectratone Dmax 
envy - and to prove Tyler's point
that my real life ended when I bought my 
first spectrophotometer, here is a
quick list of Dmax measurements for various 
papers and the Spectratone
inkset for the Epson Stylus 3000 printed 
with the standard RGB driver set on
backlight film.  Note that just because it has a 
high Dmax I don't
necessarily recommend it -- some of the clay 
papers print with a really
strange reddish cast (except Crane Museo 
which prints with a really strange
cyanish cast just to be different).  However, 
a lot of the clay coated
mattes and watercolors that aren't 
recommended by Lincoln Inks and Papers
(longevity issues I think) look really nice 
after they finish curing for a
few days.  The Arches papers listed are *
not* the "bright white" variety.
Not sure if the Bulldog Photorag is still 
available but it is a gelatin
paper with a rather nice very light pebble 
finish much smoother than the Oce
texture (but it was hugely expensive a few 
years ago when I bought it).
Need to do further work with this one!   
Konica QP and Tetenal have a high
Dmax but print horribly reddish with these 
inks.  The Ilford Glossy is still
king at 2.32 and spotlessly neutral.  Haven't 
yet tried any of my hand
coated (Knox gelatin) varieties with 
Spectratones but I would bet they do
well.
<snip>