Digital BW, The Print

In a message dated 10/20/2006 12:35:03 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
odets@... writes:

3.   While the Cone QTR profiles for the K7/4800 are excellent and 
pretty much  make obviate the the need for ICC profiling, I did not 
find this with the  K3/ABW.  I think this Epson system pretty much 
needs ICC profiling  for both best results and an easy, reliable, 
consistent workflow image to  image.  I know that Clayton and others 
do PS curves for this purpose,  but this seems like an ongoing hassle 
to me.  The ICC profiles are a  do-it-and-forget-it deal and are very 
accurate and I would highly  encourage it.  The need to do this (and 
to own a densitometer) is the  weakness of the K3/ABW system in my 
appraisal.



Hi Walt:
 
I've been using the ColorVision PrintFixPro for profiling my color  printers, 
and I'm waiting for their v 2.0 software to release which will give us  B/W 
profiling capability as well. 
Perhaps CD Tobie will add to this very interesting thread to give us his  
perspective on what the future holds. This is a low-cost system that does an  
excellent job without the hassle and expense associated with the Hi-end  
software-hardware products out there.
Although I've been able to make prints that I find comparable to the same  
negative printed in my old darkroom and exhibited years ago, there is a need to  
be able to adjust print quality to lighting in exhibition spaces, just as we 
had  to do before. My biggest adjustment was to accept the matte paper look 
(I'm  still tempted to apply a coat of wax to some prints, remember the green 
boxes?).  The gloss finish papers are even harder to adjust to. They call them 
photo  papers, but they fall short of the selection we had available in the 
darkroom.  The Luster papers seem to offer the best finish, but they are too thin 
and  creases are too easy to make if you don't mount them quickly. I just 
wish that  Bill Atkinson would make profiles for the 4800 K 3 ABW, and Epson 
would add some  weight to their Prem Luster.
 
Richard (Brooklyn)


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