Digital BW, The Print

John-

>>There have been so few detailed reports of this inkset that I was
beginning to wonder what was going on. Do you like the dmax?

Yes, I do like the dmax. My preliminary tests indicate that the dmax 
ranges from about 1.5 (Bradford Natural White) to 1.63 on Photo Rag. 
Just about what you'd expect. Measurements were taken with an EyeOne 
and the Lab values converted to density using Bruce Lindbloom's  
Companding Calculator. One note, though: I intend to redo these tests 
in the near future. I have two EyeOne's and I'm getting slightly 
different readings from each. I wonder if anyone of this list could 
comment on that?

>>Where do you teach?

I teach at St. Edward's University. We have an excellent undergraduate 
photography program; it's a Bachelor of Arts major in the School of 
Humanities. We enjoy tremendous support from our administration and 
have built extensive film-based and digital facilities and curriculum.

>>By the way, do you know Lawrence McFarland who is on the faculty of
the UT photo program? I knew him years ago in Tucson and I own a
couple of his best silver prints from that era. Apparently he is doing
digital now as he had a Howtek scanner like mine. Never though I'd see
the day....

Yes, I know Lawrence well. My wife, Melissa Miller, is a painter and 
teaches in the UT fine arts program. Sybil Miller, one of my collegues 
at SEU, is married to Mark Goodman who teaches at UT with Lawrence.


>>If you know him please say hello and tell him its his
fault that Texans are taking over the country.

I should have known it was his fault! It all makes sense now...

Incidentally, the linearization question is a very interesting one. So 
far, Cone has sidestepped this. I have a few thoughts about this and 
would appreciate hearing other opinions: the last two generation of 
Epson photo printers seem to operate, out of the box, to a much higher 
standard. I assume this is a combination of better software (including 
ICC profiles and things like ABW) and better hardware (and, to some 
extent, better media; the K3 inks are better than the K2's, for 
example). This reduces, but does not elimenate, the need to linearize a 
printer. The "need" to linearize, it seems to me, is directly connected 
to how much control the photographer thinks is necessary to produce the 
kind of prints they find satisfying and successful.

I know there has to be a wide range of opinon about the "need" to 
linearize on this list. From my perspective, linearization is 
fundamental and any system or approach that does not, or cannot, 
include or accomodate user linearization is inherently limited. For 
example, as an inkjet printer ages and it's calibrated state changes 
you either linearize the machine or must resort to manipulating the 
image file data to compensation for the machine's drift.

So, how do proprietary systems, which now apparently include Cone's K7 
profiles for QTR, address this?



Bill Kennedy
Austin, Texas