Digital BW, The Print

Hello Kevin,

>The first icon I downloaded would not open. It was something like 4 
>profiles/curves/plugins or something from a 3rd party company that 
>offered a B&W conversion work flow among other things? Any idea what 
>that was and how to install it properly?

Sorry, no.  I have no experience with those.


>I got hung up on your very first instruction re: driver settings in 
>that I was NOT able to choose from Velvet Fine Art Paper...Any idea 
>why I could not choose "Velvet"?

Sorry, no again.  I just looked at it and cannot find any way _not_ to
have that available.  Maybe someone else knows more about this...



>Per your "other options" instruction I was finally able to choose 
>from "Advanced B&W Photo" mode. I'm not sure why, but several times 
>when I tried it was not selectable. Any idea why?

With certain paper and/or quality settings it's not available.


 
>After adjusting your "driver settings" (with exception of the 
>"Velvet Fine Art Paper") instructions I got what I'd consider to 
>be a very nice b&w test image! Thanks.

Sounds like you're in the ballpark.


>I recently switched to Mac and the look of the Espon "driver" is 
>very confusing to me. For example, the "print with preview" here 
>Does this have anything to do with the Epson driver? 

It's part of PS which talks to the driver.


>How important are these settings to getting good print results? 

The most important thing is for Color Handling to select the "No Color
Management" setting (I think that's correct, I'm still using CS so I'm
not positive on the wording.  This is the CS2 equivalent of "Same As
Source" in CS and earlier versions.

>In particular, what should I select for "color handling", "printer 
>profile", "rendering intent", and "black point compensation"? 

I may be wrong, but I think with No Color Mgmt selected the others
become irrelevent.  But my inclination would be to leave the default
settings as is unless there is a good and definite reason to change
them.  Someone who knows more please come in here and
clarify this...


>for the "printer profile" I think that I ended up choosing "Dot 
>Gain 20%", but could have just as easily picked "2400 EEM best"?

This is important and is covered in the next article section
"Photoshop Settings" you said you haven't read yet.  It really would
be best to read the entire thing.  Unless you understand how these
settings interact you're just groping around in the dark.  There is a
reference in that section to article #4, which goes into some detail
about those settings.  At some point it would be good to study that as
well.

 
>Compared to my 4+ year-old 1280, the 2400 prints ultra fast and is 
>whisper quiet.

It really is a great printer, in many ways.  If someone is just
getting started and can afford it, the 2400 would be my highest
recommendation.  Starting there is simply going to bypass many
frustrating issues that other systems bring into the mix.  

Regards,
Clayton


Info on black and white digital printing at    
http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm