Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Steve Kale
<stevekale@b...> wrote:
> Have you setup a soft proof to Gray Matte Paper with perceptual
rendering
> and black point compensation checked and simulate ink black checked?
 Simply
> put, there is no way for even the Epson driver to "match the
display" unless
> you are looking at a good soft proof.  The dynamic range of matte paper
> simply isn't wide enough.
> 
> A couple of other points.  Leaving a greyscale image in Adobe RGB
doesn't
> make a lot of sense to me.  You just use 3x the disk space.  This
was the
> rationale behind QTR Grey Lab - it is Lab but with the a and b channels
> discarded because they are unnecessary for B&W.  But be that as it may.
> 
> With the ICC profile-based soft proof you should then get a very
good match
> (assuming your monitor is properly profiled) to the QTR print. I use
a Mac
> and so the QTR print stage is a lot easier for me - I simply print
from PS
> with an on the fly conversion from my workspace (QTR Grey Lab) to my
print
> space (QTR Matte/Photo paper) - much in the same way that you do
with colour
> work.  With the PC version of QTR you need to manually do the conversion
> from your "master" image to the "print" image and save this version for
> print. Make sure that when you do the conversion you use Perceptual
Intent
> and Use Black Point Compensation.
> 
> If you are not getting a good match to your screen then either the
display
> isn't calibrated and being used by PS properly or there is a problem
at the
> printer end.  I assume you have left all the other QTR settings
untouched -
> ink limit and gamma etc.  What inks are you using?  (Sorry if you have
> mentioned this before).

At this point I am totally against changing anything in my screen
calibration for the simple reason that my color prints come out with
*exact* colors and the right brightness. It is mostly wysiwyg, and I
understand that the slight difference in contrast is a a
characteristic of the matte paper. 

Also, PS is printing my B&W photo the right way. The only thing I want
to get rid of is the metamerism. The rest comes out fine, contrasty,
sharp etc.

I just tried to softprof my image using Roy's grey matte profile in
PS. It looks identical until I click "simulate ink black". Then the
contrast is lost and the photo is washed out, I guess just like the print.

I am using Enhanced Matte paper from Epson and the Ultrachrome ink
with the matte black ink.