Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Brian Chapman" 
<brianechapman@...> wrote:

> I was printing test squares (like Paul said, 1" black squares) last 
> night and I was surprised at how much of a difference each of the 
> paper type settings made - and that was only testing the blacks.  

I've been going for open shadow detail when testing for the "best" media type. Though 
CDTobie is right...the media settings are more than just dmax or saturation or gamma or 
ink load...anyway you could test for best shadow detail and if anything is lost test for best 
Color Density percentage and really drive yourself crazy.

I've posted the below to a few forums...so I don't know if you have read this yet.........


Copy and paste below:

Try exploring media settings to open shadows...that's what I'd recommend over changing 
Color Density as Color Density is more of a gamma correction so every part of the image 
takes a hit instead of just the shadows.

I recently tested to find the "best" media setting for William Turner paper on my Epson 
4800.

Epson's black usually comes in hard and fast, less so with the newest printers, and I 
wanted to find the media setting that has smoothest black ramp from 100% to 90%.

I printed a ten patch gray ramp from 100% to 90% with five media settings.

My Excel results are below for William Turner on the Epson 4800:

http://homepage.mac.com/johnvito/WilliamTurnerMediaSettings.png

From 100% to 90% only two media settings show fairly smooth linear density loss albeit 
stepped at times. While the other three actually have spiked increases in density - called 
reversals - on some patches. For example Epson's Enhanced media setting has the same 
density at the following patches: 100%, 99% and 97%. The 98% patch has a lower density 
than 97% patch and another reversal at 94%.

My media setting choice for William Turner was UltraSmooth as it has the most smoothest 
linear path. The custom paper profile will have less heavy lifting to do once the "best 
media type" is found.