Digital BW, The Print

The situation that I encountered recently involved a need to limit the K ink
channel earlier than the Epson driver and likely let the other inks run a
little further.  This was on HPR.  I guess we are getting very far off topic
now but I'd really value your input on colour RIP output - perhaps via the
WF forum.  I haven't made a purchase yet but I've been tinkering with the
idea...


> From: Tyler Boley <tyler@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2006 21:53:48 -0000
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Da Vinci Fibre Gloss Paper
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Steve Kale
> <stevekale@...> wrote:
>> 
>> Agree completely.  The only thing that is making me consider one is the fact
>> that I'd like to not be constrained by the ink limits in the Epson driver
> 
> I'm still unsure about that. Yes indeed, you can open up the color channels
> based on media 
> performance, and of course linearization has got to be a benifit. But it's
> beginning to look to
> me like lots of ink makes things more difficult for the profiler. I'll know
> more about this later.
> So far, the cleanest profiles without problems are coming from set-ups with
> very conservative
> ink levels, individual and total. So are we back to Epson driver performance?
> The other thing you can't match is Epson's strange GCR and total ink. Somehow
> they only 
> allow 100% at rgb 000, so only k ink there, but obvioulsy considerably more in
> dark colors. 
> So total ink is "variable". The downside to this is there may not be enough
> color inks available
> at very dark rich colors like deep browns. You can easily see this with a 3d
> gamut veiwer of 
> an Epson RGB profile vrs a good CMYK profile, it's very skinny near K. Then
> the question 
> becomes, how often do you really miss those colors in the real world?
> Sometimes all of this is
> just talk.
> But the reverse is definitely true, you can't limit more without a RIP for
> certain media. If you
> want to print beautiful pastel color on something like a japanese paper, there
> may be no 
> Epson media setting that will limit enough.
> Tyler