Digital BW, The Print

Ernst,

A lot of my color brochure work goes to press, so accurate color 
management is critical for me.  I need accurate proofs so I can work 
properly with my commercial printers.  

I tried for over a year to get a good monitor to print match using 
6500K and 2.2 gamma, but never was satisfied.  6500K was way too 
blue, and my editing resulted in me adding yellow to balance to the 
colors properly.  This added yellow to the file, which showed as an 
excessively yellow print.  I know the eye is capable of adapting to 
color swings, but this was too much of a swing for my eyes.

So, I did a lot of testing and experimentation and finally settled on 
5200K and 2.0 gamma (using my Eye One and ProfileMaker 5).  Now my 
monitor to print match is almost perfect in both color and tonal 
distribution.  It is also interesting to note that most of the papers 
we print to with our inkjets (or on press) have measured white points 
between about 4900K and 5200K.  (I chose 5200K since it is the color 
temp of the whitest paper I print on).  I don't think this is a 
coincidence.   

I use 5000K 98 CRI viewing lights set to the same brightness as my 
monitor white.  

I have found that most monitors have a "sweet spot" or range of color 
temperatures and gammas where they perform best.  When you step 
outside that range, the monitor really begins to perform poorly.  My 
monitor goes suddenly very yellow at about 5000K, which is why I 
settled on 5200K.  Most higher end monitors can handle 5000K without 
any problem.  I use these setting at work and at home, for all my 
press and fine art work.  This doesn't mean they are ideal settings 
for everyone else, since they take into account my viewing lights, 
environment, monitors, video cards, etc.  

I encourage everyone who wants the absolute best match to experiment 
with their settings until satisfied.

Regards, Lou

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Ernst Dinkla 
<E.Dinkla@c...> wrote:
> On the colorsync list quite a number of color gurus use 6500K on 
the 
> monitor and 5000-5500K on the lightbox etc. I have done that for 
some 
> time but switched back to 5000K for all. But I use 5000 with 2.2 
Gamma 
> and not the 1.8 usually associated with 5000K. The Prove It! 
software 
> needs a bit more custom settings for that. The moderate quality of 
my 
> monitor probably has to do with the lower preferred setting, it 
lost a 
> bit of its output. When the room isn't too light it doesn't matter. 
> Using 6500K for the monitor versus 5000K for the lightbox isn't so 
> strange. The amount of illumination influences what is considered 
the 
> best color temperature for viewing art etc. So quoting color 
temperature 
> and not mentioning lumen or footcandles for the same source doesn't 
help.
> 
> See:
> http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/waac/wn/wn21/wn21-3/wn21-308.html
> 
> In that chart 5000 and 6500 are not that far apart and near the 
center 
> of the curve. Footcandles a factor 2:3. You can put them next to 
one 
> another.
> 
> By Mr. Kruithof who is still living somewhere in this town.
> 
> 
> Ernst