Digital BW, The Print

There may or may not be a parallel here, but when sending jobs to a 
printing press, you will generally see more "apparent" sharpness when 
using a coarser line screen.  A 133 lpi screen will appear 
contrastier, hence sharper, than a 175 or 200 lpi line screen.  The 
finer screen tends to reduce the differentiation of contrast and 
sharpness in favor of smoothness, since it is filling in more white 
space on the sheet.  

I wouldn't be surprised if the same effect is showing up when 
printing with BO vs. using QTR or any other RIP using multiple 
inks.   

If this is the case, which makes some sense to me, then I don't see 
that as a problem with QTR so much as it is a workflow problem.  I 
know I have to consider the line screen when I design a job for press 
output, and will increase the contrast and sharpness of my final 
images to account for it.   At least in press work, it is just part 
of the territory.  

Lou Dina

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "djon43" 
<djon43@y...> wrote:
>
>  "John Moody" <moodymz3@y...> wrote:
> >
> > Have you used QTR-create-ICC to profile both BO and the curves you
> are using
> > with QTR?  That would output both prints with the same tonal
> characteristic.
> > If this has not been done, I wonder if the BO shadow compression 
is
> > generating more contrast in the features that appear sharp?
> 
> John, May I ask you to try that? I don't have your expertise: I'd be
> very interested in your results (comparing best QTR sharpness to 
BO). 
> 
> I hate to be the only person reporting a QTR sharpness 
problem...maybe
> I'm really describing MY problem, rather than a flaw in QTR...
> 
> ...it seems a fault if QTR requires a profile that matches BO in 
order
> to arrive at maximum sharpness. It also seems a fault if it 
requires 
> different post-processing sharpning (as it may).  
> 
>  BO obviously does create more contrast in shadow details* than QTR,
> but "smart sharpen" of shadows (one of the Photoshop "smart sharpen"
> adjustments) in post-processing does cause QTR to approximate BO
> sharpness...a matter of tinkering. 
> 
> * shadow details for Photoshop CS2's "smart sharpen" seems to mean
> control of dark areas that contain whites as opposed to control of
> dark details contained by whites...in practice this is not the same 
thing.
>