Digital BW, The Print

> From: davidpichevin <davidpichevin@...>

> 
> It did take some calibrating work, but now my color prints are
> perfect. No matter how it was obtained, I have a workflow where what I
> have on my screen is reproduced on paper.

But when you try to soft-proof it all goes haywire- something is very wrong.
Sounds like rather than profiling the screen and using a colour managed
workflow and using soft proofing to preview print output you have tweaked
the screen to match the print and abandoned a colour-managed workflow.
Makes switching papers difficult.  Really not the right path to follow.  I
can pull up any colour image and do a soft proof to my Epson Enhanced Matte
paper profile and see the impact of that matte paper on screen.  It's
important to realise that the difference is much more noticeable with B&W
because you are working in a single dimension - ink density - and the impact
to tonal range is much more obvious.

> 
> My best test for this was this image:
> 
> http://www.pichevinphoto.com/popped.php?id=0384

Nice image. 


> 
> Every single color comes out perfectly, the way I see it on screen.
> The pink is pink, the purples are the same purples, the shadow areas
> are good and the orange is beautiful. Based on this, I decided that my
> setup is right.
> 
> But that's not all, the B&W result from PS is also just as good
> (except for the metamerism due to the yellow ink of course).
> 
> That's not luck, that's just called something that works well.

Doesn't seem to work well else you would use the Epson driver with your EEM
profile for B&W.  BTW we don't think yellow is the culprit - more likely
poor balance of magenta and cyan.


> 
> Without the metamerism I would not even have tried another program.

You are simply trying another print driver.


> 
>> If I were you I would
>> just give up and print "black only" with the Epson driver (I pointed
> you in
>> that direction with an earlier post).  The 2200 driver with Black
> checked
>> will just use the K ink.  Your prints will reflect the tone of the ink -
>> quite warm but to get better requires some investment in time on
> your part.
> 
> I think that if I cannot get to a satisfying result I will let a pro
> lab take care of my B&W shots.

That is always one option but seriously you should be getting much more
sensible output with QTRGui.  You just need to take the time and effort to
work through the issues.