Digital BW, The Print

Just when I was going to abandon this paper as a lost cause, it's
given me a real surprise.

As a last experiment, I printed the GMB small profiling chart (TC2.83)
on my Epson 2100, standard UC inks, standard Epson driver, with media
= PSG, _1440 dpi_, NCA in the Epson driver.

The new profile at 1440 dpi is substantially different compared to the
2880 dpi version I produced earlier with the PSG media setting.

For 1440 dpi, the black point is now Lab 7, 0, -4 (was 12, -1, -4 with
2880 dpi). Still not as good as other glossy papers but more
respectable. But that's not all.

Looking at the profile's RGB tone reproduction curves in Chromix
ColorThink, the curves behave much better near the black end of the
tonal scale, without the crossovers seen at 2880 dpi. In fact the
curves are some of the best-behaved I've seen with any paper.

On an actual test print with this profile there is now visible
separation (just) all the way on a 21-step grey wedge, and the
neutrality is not bad considering the small number of patches used.

So for the Epson 2100/2200 with the Epson driver and UC inks it looks
like 1440 dpi gives much better results, maybe because the amount of
ink and/or dot gain is different at this dpi compared to 2880. 

No doubt the knowledgeable members on this list can chime in with
similar phenomena seen with other papers, but it looks like this paper
is very sensitive to the amount of ink laid down on it. Anybody
evaluating it should check the ink limits very carefully if they're
using a RIP.

I'll now do a TC9.18 based profile & see what happens to the shadow
detail and neutrality.

Regards

Alan


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Steve Kale
<stevekale@...> wrote:
>
> 
> You could well be right.  I have Nanochrome dye ink in my 2100 at
the moment
> and so would need to flush it before popping in Epson Ultrachromes.
 Perhaps
> someone else can run a quick check with a sample sheet.  One thing
to do to
> check ink limits is to print the QTR calibration chart (in
calibration mode)
> and then read the progression of steps.  At least then you'll get a
sense of
> what peak density can be.