Digital BW, The Print

In a message dated 11/30/06 3:46:58 PM, roy@... writes:


> ABW is only non-ICC in that Epson does not supply any grayscale ICC 
> profiles
> and none of the "biggies" in color management support grayscale profiling.
> 
ColorVision chose to use full 3D Look UpTable profiling instead, as it offers 
so much more control. You could run PrintFIX PRO through the AWB mode, I 
suppose, but all you'd get is linearization. Thats all you can really do to AWB: 
linearize it, and take a snapshot of the result.
> 
> However the QTR-Create-ICC tool does all of that -- creates grayscale ICC
> profile for use in softproofing and ICC printing to match the embedded 
> profile
> and the printer device.   This raises the ABW workflow to a complete ICC 
> workflow.
> 
There would seem to be some rather large gaps there. Tonal control is 
missing, that still has to be done via the dartboard in AWB. Preview; does that cover 
tonalities, and by way of what tonal measurements? Wouldn't you have to 
profile every single tone of interest, and create a preview profile for each one, 
rather than having a 3D LUT profile that contains all possible tints and 
cross-tints in one profile? On the topic of cross-tints: I have found no method of 
creating them effectively in AWB. And tools for tinting and ramping? Again, I 
suspect this is being left to the dartboard. Gamut warnings? Not relevant. To 
me a complete ICC workflow also means I can match output on another media, or 
another printer, which is possible with 3D LUT profiles. I don't really see how 
this happens via AWB. So if a client loves a particular cross-tint, opps, no 
cross-tints... if they love a particular tint, how can I get that on another 
device or media, if its only available as an AWB value, which varies per media, 
and is only available on AWB-based devices?

C. David Tobie
Product Technology Manager
ColorVision Business Unit
Datacolor Inc.
CDTobie@colorvision.com
www.colorvision.com


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