Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "jimpegoda" 
<pegoda@c...> wrote:
> 
> I'm having some of the same problems with UT2 inks that Ted is 
> having although my 21step.tif file looks fine on my monitor,

Using Dot Gain 30% makes my (profiled like yours) monitor better 
match my printed 21 step tablet.
 
> Generally the steps between 60% and 85% show very little 
separation, 
> the steps from 0% to 5% are too large and the three steps from 90% 
> to 100% are too large. The values between 70% and 85% show almost 
no 
> separation. 

similar to my experience

>
> and found that the cool version of the 21step.tif file printed with 
> much better separation 

exactly my experience, and cool actually looks neutral
while neutral looks v. slightly warm to me

> exhibit some posterization, which is very noticeable in skin tones. 
i don't get posterization, but i do get rasterization of the dither 
in the highest values using QTR/Gui/8bit tiffs, which is not apparent 
in 16 bit versions printed with PS color management and Roark curves.
Head alignment has been checked and verified.

Using the 'purge' file Paul kindly sent me, i printed files which 
showed some of the inks a bit darker and browner than his scans of 
his own output, but they didn't seem tremendously off value to either 
of us.

I still can't find a paper value that reliably prints Eboni dark 
enough as grayscale/single black, and the dither pattern is too 
obtrusive for me to persist.  I have double printed to get good 
densities in the shadows when single black printing.

Aside from issues of permanence, Eboni as single black is no better 
than Epson for me, but i might keep trying with UT2 if i can lick the 
bad low value contrast.

Using Dot Gain 30% on monitor, RGB/Roark EEM neutral, heavyweight 
matte paper, printer set at heavyweight matte paper, No Color 
Management, and Best Photo (presumably 1440, since the latest 1280 
driver does not (!!?) specify numerical choices -- boo hiss) I can 
get a print that matches the screen reasonably well.

It still has too low contrast in the lowest values (around 70% down) 
and looks kind of dull.  I may have goosed the 'Zone ii-iii' values 
too much trying to increase the dark contrast, but it was the best i 
could do.

Still haven't made a custom visual workspace, or tried 'Color 
Controls' with a print space that differs from the source space.

ted