Digital BW, The Print

Yes, if profiles were based on floating-point numbers rather than integers,
colorspace would not matter, but they are, so one needs to be careful of
what happens in the conversion process.  You point out we need higher
bit-depth graphics cards and monitors to take advantage of the wider gamuts
the current printers have; I believe this will be part of the next
significant advance in digital imaging and printing.

With a good printer, inks, "driver", etc., all 256 grayscale steps are
resolvable.  I use the quoted term "driver" to encompass any RIP, or print
driver on any OS.  From my own observations, side-by-side patches are
resolvable by eye as well as instrument.  Since that is the case, shouldn't
the master file be in the space that most closely represents human
perception, i.e. QTR space?  For someone with software and computing
resources that allow entire file treatment at 16-bit, it becomes less of an
issue, but the fundamental issue is still there.

One way to explore such issues is to create a 16-bit gray gradient at least
3600 pixels wide, and print it at least 10 inches long by about 0.5 inch
tall, using different "drivers", profiles etc.   Such an image will be large
enough to reduce the effect of "driver" dither, and allow you to see how
smooth a particular combination of hardware and software render the levels,
which is limited to 256 for at least some, if not all of the "drivers".
What I have seen in my own trials has been enlightening, and allowed tuning
the process to produce smoother results, that result in better printed
images.

Best regards,
John Moody

-----Original Message-----
From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Steve Kale
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 5:30 AM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] GG 2.2 vs. DG 20 (Was Comparison: K3 versus
Ultrachrome)

The thing is it doesn't matter which space you work in if you use colour
management to manage the translation. (I'm talking the greyscale case here.
There are many other issues when we move to a colour world.)  In this case
it doesn't matter if you work in GG2.2, Gray Lab or DG20.

<snip>


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