Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Roy Harrington"
<roy@h...> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Tyler.   As far as I can tell softproofing with the LAB gray
profile does
> exactly the same thing as just assigning your file to the Lab gray
space.

Yes I would think so. The only difference is how the file is tagged,
which matters little in a practicle sense with this workflow.

> I've also found that the softproofs I made for one specific inkset
(UT2 on 1270)
> work surprisingly well for many other situations.   I think B&W
turns out to be
> a lot easier to work with a fairly generic softproof.

Since you are always linearizing to the same standard, and we are just
seeing the device to LAB LUTs by using preserve color numbers, with
nearly monochrome output, I think you are right. In fact, if one
turned out significantly different, I'd be inclined to relinearize it.

> I've been experimenting with a shortened Lab profile to reflect a
typical dmin
> and dmax, but there's a awful lot of combinations of Black Pt Comp,
Ink Black,
> Paper White and Intents.

I guess you'd have to come up with some average, but it could be
useful. There are ways to edit media white and ink K in profiles, but
they have to be true icc profiles. I don't know how you are making
yours, but if you've figured out a way to make true single channel icc
profiles, I'll be even more impressed than I already am.
Tyler