Digital BW, The Print

Hi there

I'm writing today to let you all know how my
experiment worked out.  I own an Epson Stylus Photo
900 (not the color 900) and although it is not
directly supported by either MIS or the curves Paul so
graciously provided, it uses the same cartridges as
the 1270/1280.  So I ordered a set of QVM cartridges
from MIS in the hopes that one of the curves would
work.  The rest of this email deals with my results.

The cartridges themselves were recognized just fine by
the printer, so that was a relief.  Next I prepped two
photos for printing, one a recent wedding photo, and
another a shot of a bush in the mist.  I wanted two
photos that were different enough from each other to
show how the curves would perform.

I tested two sets of curves so far, the 1270 PC curves
(1270pc.zip) and the 1280 PC curves (1280pc.zip).  In
general the 1270 curves produced output that is
lighter/more washed out, and less accurate to the
screen.  The 1280 curves produced better results all
around, however some of the mid-tone detail was lost:
shades close to each other in the middle of the tonal
range appeared closer together than in the 1270
curves, leading to a loss of detail.  In addition, the
1280 warm curve (vmp8w21.acv) produced blowouts at the
high end, where it looked like anything over a certain
value was given the same value.  

I hope you can understand what I've written, I'm
afraid I'm not up on the proper terminology of this
stuff.  I will continue to test different curves in
the hope of finding a set that works best for this
printer.  Thanks to Paul for creating these curves and
allowing them to be distributed for free.  

...Mike 

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