Digital BW, The Print

> This worked in the past just fine, but on a recent project, I've 
noticed straight lines 
> that look like boxes (in synch with the frame edge) within the 
mask. and can't figure 
> out what is happening.

Allen,

That blurred edge burn layer, if you view it at high enough
magnification, probably contains bands of equal-value pixels,
each band only a single value different from the ones adjacent. 
Depending on the image, the difference in the bands can show 
up in the final print, especially in skies. 

You can fix this by introducing some noise into that edge burn
layer. An easy way to do this is to use the magic wand with
threshold 0 to select something in the middle, then invert the
selection--effectively selecting the "edge burn" part of the 
layer. Then use the noise filter to add noise to the selected
portion. I find between 1% and 1.5% is enough noise to mask the 
bands, but previewing the filter results on just the burn layer
at high magnification makes it pretty easy to see by trial and
error.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has a better solution
than introducing noise! I haven't found one.

-David