Digital BW, The Print

Steve Kale, you asked feedback on selecting monitor color temp and 
gamma for color printing in the recent (and very interesting) 
discussion on B&W monitor to print discussion.  I will share my 
experiences.

First, I send a lot of jobs to printing presses and need accurate 
color proofs.  I use an i1 spectro and ProfileMaker 5, a Windows XP, 
and a 2200.  I use D50 Solux lighting (one of the best) for viewing.  

After trying to make D65 and gamma 2.2 to work for over a year, I 
finally threw in the towel.  No matter what I do, I cannot get a good 
monitor to print color or tonal distribution match with those 
settings.  It is way too blue on my monitor, and I end up adding too 
much yellow to compensate, which shows up as way too yellow in the 
print.  

After lots of experimentation, I settled on 5500K and 2.0 gamma, 95 
cd/m2, and my monitor to print match is nearly perfect.  It is also a 
very close match to the proofs I get back from my commercial printer, 
who is fully color managed and runs a tight ship.  

Here is my thinking on the subject.  I find that all monitors have 
a "sweet spot" in which they are capable of operating optimally.  
When you step outside that sweet spot, things can go to hell in a 
hurry.  I tried 5000K and 1.8 with my CRT, but the results were 
incredibly dingy and very yellow, much more than should normally be 
indicated by a step from 5500K to 5000K.  I believe I stepped outside 
of the "zone".  A sony Artisan or other top quality monitor would 
probably work beautifully, but mine didn't perform well at 5000K.

I also measured the papers I print to with my spectro, and nearly all 
of them fall into the 4900-5250K range.  I tried setting my monitor 
temp to the measured paper white of my brightest paper (5250K), and 
that did work pretty well, but I think on was on the ragged edge or 
my monitor's capabilities, so left it set for 5500K.  Gamma 2.2 
didn't give me the distribution of tones that I needed for a good 
match, so I tried gammas ranging from 1.5 to 2.6.  I found 2.0 worked 
best for my monitor.  I don't have any problems with banding or 
posterization using the above settings.  My match has never been 
better.  BTW, these settings work equally well on my setup at home, 
but they are both CRTs from the same vendor.

All of the above were confirmed visually, and also with a special 
calibration target used to assess gamma, contrast ratio, tonal 
distribution, etc. 

I know this goes against some prevailing wisdom, and kills the notion 
of a standard color temp and gamma.  I have a lot of knowledgeable 
friends in the business, and many of them have found they have to 
migrate closer to 5000K for a good match.

All I know is that it works great for me.  

Regards, Lou