Digital BW, The Print

See Mitch Alland's File (May 2006) in the Imageprint Yahoo Group file
section.  The discussion of dot gain curves there is applicable to
Piezography (which is where it came from, originally).  As Mitch argue,
it allows soft proofing directly.  Myself, I've always preferred the
alternative technique Mitch discusses, of (1) getting an image that
prints reasonably well in Piezography (or Imageprint), (2) on you
monitor in Photoshop, create a curves layer such that the monitor image
matches the print as precisely as possible, and then (3) use that curves
layer as a top layer in editing subsequent images, but being careful to
disable or delete the curves layer before printing.  I find this
simpler, and it's easier to do fine tweaks on a curves layer than a dot
gain layer; the curves layer functions essentially as a soft-proof
"layer," except that you have to disable it before printing -- Mitch
objects to this, but I find I can remember (almost always), and the
simplicity/flexibility outweighs that disadvantage.  De gustibus non
disputandum est.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]