Digital BW, The Print

Greetings....
I've just joined this forum and hope to meet some of you in this
virtual space over the coming months.

I'm sure there are plenty of past messages providing introduction to
the basics.  However, rather than try and sift for the gems among
around 75K messages, I thought I'd first act to be directed to some
key files or posts that have been generally helpful to people.

FYI - I'm using a Nikon F3 with a number of different lenses and
accessories, a Nikon CoolScan V ED, a Win XP-based PC, the full
version of Photoshop 6, and an HP Photosmart 8250.  Although I've
gotten some properly toned photos in the past through my Visioneer
desktop scanner's film adapter, I know its resolution is limited and
I'm able to share my father's Nikon scanner.

However, these days I can't get prints with good monochrome grays to
save my life.  First I'd like to be directed to messages, files, or
anything else that might help me get a handle on the basics.