Digital BW, The Print

Hello Fred, 

 
>

I take it your monitor is calibrated using some kind of device and 
software combination. This is a must to produce consistent and 
predictable results from any workflow. Go to 
www.zuberphotographics.com and download the Black Point/White Point 
information for the printer. Do the procedure to determine what Black 
Point is needed to allow you to print a full tonal ranged image, and 
then do the procedure for the White Point to do the same thing. You 
may be surprised what this simple procedure can do for your printing 
results. I found that I had been using the Zero point to indicate my 
black point and after doing the BP/WP I now use BP=19 and WP=252. Do 
this test on all the types of paper you use.
 

Roy has created a gray working space to enable softproofing from the 
working gray workspace. Download from Roy's website the two QTR-Gray 
Lab and QTR-Gray Lab Matte/Photo files. After you have image ready to 
convert to Grayscale, go to Image>Mode>Convert to profile and choose 
the Gray Lab; then immediately after converting it to Gray Lab; 
convert it AGAIN to Gray Lab Matte to have final access to your soft 
proofing procedure. Further adjustments can be done to the image 
before saving and printing. The results from the BP/WP testing can be 
put into a curve that can be applied to the Grayscale image (Gray Lab 
or Gray Lab Matte/Photo) and the resulting image will print with the 
minimum amout of ink to show total black on the paper used and the 
maximum amount of ink to show total white. I hope your results will 
please and surprise you. Mine surely did when I followed this system.

Your friend in Photography,

Johnny