Digital BW, The Print

Well I'm glad for the laugh because having been away for 10 days there
wasn't that much fun in wading through the list email!!  Hey I wasn't
intending to pass judgement on taste.  Each to their own of course and I
have respect for the many that like black only on the one hand and those
that want the maximum possible number of shades of grey to work with.  I
just think one has to be careful (particularly those with influence) when
one expresses why they like or don't like something.   I simply find it hard
to believe that one can see/perceive the color dots at a sensible viewing
distance.  I think smoothness of tonal gradation is another thing and more
readily notable although again I can't help thinking that you're pushing it
when you demand more than 3 shades.  I can respect someone who says I prefer
the smoother greyscale of quad inks or K3 over BO and those that argue the
other way.  The differences are obvious even to the untrained eye and is a
matter of taste (religion?).  And I would really like to see some decent
sized prints of K3 (with QTR ;-) ) alongside K7 - and probably have a
trained eye point out to me their view of the  differences!  I can see the
advantage (in my opinion) of developing the greyscale from 1 to 2 to 3 key
components and would like to see just how much if any (yes I am a little
sceptical) gain there is in moving from 3 to 7.  But I do have a tough time
when someone says they prefer BO over K3 because they can see/perceive the
color dots in K3.  Anyway just my two cents as you Americans like to say ...
;-)

(BTW if ever you want an image printed on a 4800 for comparison let me know.
I am very much an amateur but would be happy to help where I can.  I am just
now taking a look at QTR curves for the K3 inks.  I stopped because I'll
likely swap Eboni for Epson MK as it really is a lot better.)


> From: Tyler Boley <tyler@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 17:05:57 -0000
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Digital BW] Color dots was K7, 2400 B&W And Coloration
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Steve Kale
> <stevekale@b...> wrote:
>> I must admit I find this subject of perceived/observed colouration in a
>> greyscale comprising colour dots rather interesting and, at times,
> amusing.
> 
> It's so gratifying to hear that my personal goal, to be both
> compelling AND entertaining, has been achieved at least this month.
> Good morning Las Vegas!!
> 
> Steve, this issue is interesting primarily because it involves
> perception, how the eye/brain registers information and how that
> information strikes us as satisfying, or not. Particularly, all that
> with regard to a bunch of people extremely experienced at responding
> to B&W prints of any kind, as we have here.
> It's all about the effectiveness of the prints, period.
> Some people might be interested in quantifying all of that if
> possible. I'm more interested in the result. I saw a show by a famous
> photographer, all B&W, all UC(K2) RGB driver stuff with good profiles.
> All carefully lit so they were neutral. I couldn't find a thing wrong
> with them, files were well edited, tones nicely chosen, no color
> banding, no visible color dots, nothing at all.
> But I just didn't like them, without knowing how they were printed at
> first. Other options with far less color ink involved, assuming well
> done prints, have been much more satisfying. This is my personal
> reaction, not one I preach.
> Sometimes it just gets down to that. What the smallest perceptible
> color dot size is, well it just doesn't matter all that much. I've got
> some K3 samples here to compare with quad output, but to be fair I
> need some on good coated art papers, this photo stuff is not appealing
> and I can't print quads on it to compare directly. When the x800s come
> out, I'll have one here for direct testing myself.
> Tyler
> 
>