Digital BW, The Print

Howard

My best results with 2400 and SR are when I set ink density at -3% 
and the ABW as "light". Sounds like our notes roughly line up

Cheers

Brian


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Howard Slavitt" 
<howard.slavitt@...> wrote:
>
> I got started down this road based on reading this forum and trying 
> out Clayton Jones' ABW workflow for my Epson R2400.  Great 
articles!  
> I find Clayton's work flow easier and more versatile than using QTR 
> on my Epson 2200, which was my previous workflow.  The blacks on 
the 
> R2400 really help make black and white printing yield richer 
results, 
> IMHO.  For my on topic point -- for those of you who like semigloss 
> papers like I do, the Epson Semigloss paper works great with 
> Clayton's workflow and ABW.  I find I'm able to tone the Epson 
> Semigloss to both get selenium/blue tones and to get rich deep 
> browns.  A great versatile paper.  It bronzes much less with the 
2400 
> and ABW than it did using the 2200/QTR workflow. . .  Now for my 
off 
> topic (color) question.  I'm in the process of ordering COLOR (bad 
> word around here) printer profiles for my Epson R2400. I'm going to 
> profile Museo Silver Rag at the "Best Photo" (2440 dpi) setting. 
> Based on Clayton's suggestion for using the Museo SR for ABW, I was 
> going to set my color ink density at -3% to get a bit less ink, to 
> hopefully make it easier to profile and get better shadow 
separation. 
> (In ABW mode, per Clayton's suggestion, I use a -4% color ink 
density 
> setting, a bit more conservative than his suggested -5% setting.) I 
> ran tests and could see slightly more shadow separation at -3%. Has 
> anyone else tried profiling the R2400 for COLOR prints with a color 
> ink density setting of something other than zero? Any 
> comments/recommendations? I've searched for more information on the 
> color ink density setting on the web and have found a few comments, 
> but they're few and far between. My concern is that by setting the 
> ink density to -3% I may be limiting the DMAX I can get, or the 
> saturation, but I figure in any event a -3% setting is pretty 
> conservative so it shouldn't limit the gamut too much. . . I'm also 
> getting profiles made for the Epson SemiGloss paper. Here, I figure 
> I'm better off just using the Epson driver and "0" color ink 
density 
> setting, unless others have different experiences. I figure Epson 
> probably got this one close enough; if I had my own densitometer 
and 
> color profiling software I might be able to improve on things, but 
> that's way beyond the amount of time and effort I'm willing to put 
> into this. Thanks for any insights. . .  BTW, I was going to use 
> Cathy's profiles for $40 each.  She's gotten good reviews for her 
> profiles for years on the web.  . .  Or can someone share their 
> experiences with the inkjetart.com color profiles that are only $25 
> each?  Thanks in advance.
>