Digital BW, The Print

>> Hi Tyler,
>> The only problem is that the only way you can do that is to find
> the 
> gamma
>> of the printer/ink/paper and stay in that space forever.  If you
> change any
>> part of that you have to adjust gamma anyway....
> snip...
> Exactly. That's what I meant. What you are calling the gamma of a
> printer/paper/ink combo is compensated for within the workflow, your
> RGB curves. The grayscale scan, edits, conversion to RGB, and RGB
> separations all take place in the same gamma, 2.2, right?

Yep -- with my workflow there is no need for a gamma change at print time.
That is built into the RGB previewing and separation/editing process.  But
the "Convert to RGB Caution" thread sort of got mixed with another thread
(probably me trying to consolidate advice) which was providing advice on a
different RGB process which doesn't use a profile.  If you have an RGB
profile for the printer you just set that as your proof setup and then when
you send the file to the printer it will print as softproofed (which is true
with both CMYK inks and quadtone inks).  But if you do not have that profile
you need to do some sort of a final tweak.  The customized RGB space trick
was to allow for that since a dot gain adjustment in the print space drop
down would convert the file back to grayscale on the way to the printer
(undoing the RGB adjustment).  Of course once you find the Custom RGB space
that gives the perfect RGB gamma tweak at print time you could, from then
on, use that customized RGB space as your working space minimizing (or
avoiding) any final RGB gamma tweak in the printer space.  May very well be
the way to go now that you mention it.

Dan