Digital BW, The Print

Petr Dzik, who is a PhD student at Imaging Science Department of Brno
University of Technology in the Czech Republic and will hopefully be joining
this forum soon, has recently made a couple of significant observations
regarding the UT-2 inks he recently purchased for his Epson.

 

First, the UT-2 inks and curves appear to work well on the Epson 895.

 

Second, the (very expensive) Gretag Spectrolino hardware he has available
can make profiles for the UT2 system that make it WYSIWYG even when the
curves are applied.

 

I'm not an expert in this area and doubt many people will have equipment as
fancy as he has, but the fact that some equipment can do it may signal that
more affordable equipment can also make good icc's for the UT-2 inks.

 

Paul

www.PaulRoark.com <http://www.paulroark.com/>  

 

For UT2 information, curves, and settings see:

http://home1.gte.net/res09aij/ 

 

____________________________

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Petr Dzik [mailto:dzik@...]

Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 6:45 AM

To: paul Roark

Subject: WYSIWYG profile for UT-2

 

Hello Paul,

I have just entered the world of BW printing and would like to share a few
thoughts, if you do not mind... 

 

Last week I received my order of UT-2 inks. I installed it into my Epson

895 a done some testing over the weekend. I am absolutely excited! 

The prints are just beautiful. The UT-2 inset is by far the best solution
for BW printing I have so far seen. Well done!

 

The first note is that the adjustment curves print fine with Epson 895 as
well. Only the sepia curve prints rather dark to my taste, but it's only my
subjective impression. It seems that this printer is more common in Europe
than the officially supported 890, so it might be interesting to other
people here in Europe too.

 

I was pleased to find that there was really no visible metamerism.

I was printing on Ilford Smooth Glossy and Pearl. The prints look great,
however there is some bronzing. Do all RC papers show this or is there a
less-bronzing option? Will spraying help? What spray would you recommend?

 

I tried to make a print with areas selectively toned cool and warm. 

However, after the curve is applied and the appearance of the image changes,
it is very difficult to estimate the result. I missed the possibility of
having an accurate preview. However, it seems I have found a solution to
this: I made a standard ICC profile using the UT-2 inks and Gretag
Spectrolino hardware. It seems to work great: In Photoshop, I open a
grayscalle file, convert it into RGB and assign the profile. After applying
the desired curve, I have an accurate preview how the image will look
printed. Great!

I thought you could be perhaps interested in this workflow as well, so
please find the profile attached to this email. 

 

Sincerely

 

Petr Dzik

Czech Republic

 

 



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