Digital BW, The Print

Soren, I'm sure MonacoPROFILER works very well, but I haven't had the
pleasure of working with it. While access to such flexibility may
differ, I can say that Colorvision Profiler Pro, and Gretag PM will
give you the same abilities to customize your K curve.
Which works best I am yet to discover. I will say that after years of
working with it, CV ProfilerPro is consistantly impressive and simple
to use. Recent updates seem to yeild the best results yet. I just made
a profile for someone with a new Canon i9900, they were amazed at the
results and had used other very "visible" profiling services using
Gretag that were apparently less amazing.
Using the EyeOne with it remains the biggest inconvenience, now that
the Spectrocam is all but dead.
But Eric and Marc are correct, many people with RIPs and UCs are going
this route for B&W.
Tyler

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Sören Lindqvist
<soren.lindqvist@t...> wrote:
> > > So are you saying that there is a way to create standard icc 
> profiles 
> > > for printing with the UC inks that will yield a low gamut and no 
> > > metamerism?
> > 
> > Coincidentally working on one right now, but CMYK only as per 
> Ernst's
> > post.
> > Tyler
> 
> I got this information Eric Bullock and from Marc Levine at X-rite 
> if it can be to any help....
> 
> Regards
> Soren
> 
> Works pretty well...at least for me! I start the black pretty 
> early...around 3-5% and let it run all the way up to 100%. I limit 
> black slightly in the RIP in order to get a higher TAC, which on 
> matte papers like Hahnemuhle Photo Rag is usually around 230-240%.
> *******************************************************************
> 
> About the "linear GCR" curve. There is a distinction between 
> MonacoPROFILER black-curves and others: in MonacoPROFILER, the user 
> can fully customize the curve. What that means is that the user can 
> control both start and max endpoints - as well as curve shape. The 
> user is allowed to "snap" points onto the black curve and build any 
> shape they wish - including linear. While we are talking about the 
> black curve, I should also point out the curve metric. The next time 
> you are in MonacoPROFILER, check out the scale at the bottom of the 
> curve area - you will notice it goes from 100 (white) to 0 (black). 
> That's because the black generation in based on the conversion from 
> Lab to device. The black start is actually in L*, so you can figure 
> out at exactly what incoming L* value that you will start to write 
> black.
> 
> Back to the point. Using more black in your separation forces less 
> CMY. If you look at the printing behavior of Epson printers 
> specifically, you will find a very "normal behavior" of the black as 
> it increases in density. Yes, the black has a "bronze" cast to it, 
> but is very stable and easily corrected (at least, by Monaco 
> software). We have many users using the black generation setup in 
> this way with Epson printers.
> 
> Lastly, GCR does not affect the properties of the ink or the media, 
> only how output recipes are built. To have consistency between 
> looking neutral and measuring neutral is at the intersection of a 
> media's physical attributes and a user's color perception (in other 
> words, it's subjective at best). You CAN reduce metamerisms is grays 
> by reducing the amount of 3-color component in the separation - 
> which is what manufacturers like Colorbyte do, and what users of 
> MonacoPROFILER do when they use a linear GCR curve.