Digital BW, The Print

Am I missing something here?  The luminance of your screen should match the
illuminance under which the print is viewed.  Everything else is handled by
Colorsync (including black point).  If you are not getting prints which look
the same as when displayed on screen then one of two things is wrong.
Either your monitor is not profiled properly or you don't have an accurate
mechanism for managing the transition from image file space to print space
ie no colour management in the last leg.  It is this last leg that we have
all grappled with because we chose to work without the benefit of colour
management at the printing stage.  Roy's use of perceptual rendering at the
print stage and the ability to soft proof this has for all intents and
purposes solved this last leg.


> From: Louis Dina <lbdina@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 15:27:21 -0000
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Correcting exposure for Gray Gamma 1.8
> 
> 
> 
> 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