Digital BW, The Print

Hello Ferdinand,

>I went to try BO and had a little problem because my workflow is
>different to yours... 

Ok, understood.

 
>My first question is, what ICC settings should I use in Qimage for BO
>when printing my RGB tiffs while using your recommended settings for
>the Epson 2100?

Sorry to not be much help here, but I don't know.  I have only fiddled
with Qimage a little bit and don't understand it enough to answer your
question.  


 
>For my first print I turned ICC off. I was fairly sure that this was
>the equivalent setting in Qimage to match "Same As Source" in PSCS,
to
> match your recommended settings. However I got a print that was way
> too light across the entire tonal range...
>...I think I realised what happened. Only the black plate after
>conversion to CYMK got printed. 


>Can I fix this with a different ICC setting, or do I have to send 
>real grayscale files to the printer for BO, rather than just
>monochrome RGB ones?

For Qimage, again, I have to say I don't know.  I have successfully
printed BO from mono RGB images with the Epson driver using the same
settings as for grayscale.  It doesn't seem to make any difference, 
probably because it's not blending inks.

 
>If I've got the printer ICC setting right, what else is wrong with my
>workflow?  Do I need to flatten the image before printing?  Or is it
a
>problem with Qimage sending RGB output to the printer for BO, rather
>than a grayscale image?

I can only answer for the Epson driver, not Qimage.  I have found it
not necessary to flatten the image.  It's basically WYSIWYG.

What comes to mind from your questions is that if you want to
experiment with BO I recommend to not use Qimage at first.  Just use
the Epson driver to get a feel for it and how it responds, and don't
use any profiles, just use the simple approach described in the
article.  I think it's important to get a feel for the technique in
its most simple form before trying other things.   If you find you
like it and want to explore further then you can apply your Qimage and
other experience to it.  Just try different things and see how it
varies from the basic BO technique.  If you don't have a baseline for
comparison then you don't really know what's happening, it's just
shooting in the dark.

I don't think how you work up the image itself makes any difference.  

I hope this helps.


Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm