Digital BW, The Print

Yes exactly.  I guess I was asking a narrower question.  Pop gamma off to
one side for a second.  Ideally one would perfectly match white point with
viewing conditions.  But in the absence of a specific match for a particular
purpose (eg a situation where you know the colour temp of your gallery)
people tend to congregate around general "standards" - not really standards
but practice.  In several places I have read the "standard" for photography
is D65 whereas it is D50 for the graphic arts community.  See X-Rite's site
or here for two examples:



> From: Louis Dina <lbdina@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 13:56:20 -0000
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Color Temp and Gamma for Color Printing
> 
> 
> 
> I forgot to mention one more thing.  A good monitor to print match
> requires that monitor white displayed on the screen be about the same
> brightness level as paper white illuminated by your viewing light.
> If they are very different, things get very skewed.
> 
> Lou
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Louis Dina"
> <lbdina@c...> wrote:
>> 
>> 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
> 
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