Digital BW, The Print

Well it does have a gamma.  It's just not linear ie can't be expressed by a
single number.


> From: "Paul D. DeRocco" <pderocco@...>

> 
> Technically, LAB doesn't have a gamma. Neither does sRGB. A gamma is an
> exponent that defines a simple curve. Both Lab and sRGB have a more complex
> shape that is linear at the dark end. The eye/brain doesn't respond either
> linearly or exponentially throughout its range, so it's necessary to use the
> more complex shape in order to provide something resembling uniform steps.
> 
> However, "gamma" is starting to come to mean nothing more than the midscale
> gray level. Gamma 2.2 means that a midscale gray is 0.5 to the 2.2 power in
> luminance. The higher the gamma, the darker the gray. I wish these terms
> wouldn't wander in meaning, but unless someone has a better term, I guess
> we'll loosely refer to it as "gamma".
>