Digital BW, The Print

I think I understood some of that Paul....

The thing is, I don't want to know as much as you obviously know 
about all of this.
I realize that attitude might get my lynched on a technical board 
like this...but it's true.
I want to be able to drop in carts, do some adjustments in software, 
and have a better than fair chance of getting results that please me.

To drive a nail, I need to know how to swing a hammer.  I don't need 
a background in physics.  
Because I trust in the power of the marketplace.  I'm pretty sure 
that there is now, or will be in the future, a perfectly useable 
selection of hammers out there from which I can choose one or two 
that fit my needs.

I'm grateful there are folks out there thinking of these things in 
the terms you describe...I'm just never going to be one of them.



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Roark" 
<paul.roark@...> wrote:
>
> Steve,
> 
> >I need to read up on Mr. Roark's products.
> 
> Let me clarify where I'm coming from.
> 
> I don't have any ink or printer products.  What I do is publish the
> workflows and profiles I come up with.  MIS Associates has a 
business model
> that is simply to sell what people want.  So, when they found 
people were
> following up on my workflows, they started to put them on their web 
page as
> their products.
> 
> >The little bit I found confused my newbie brain.
> 
> Some of the newer ones are not very user friendly write-ups just 
due to lack
> of time these days.
> 
> > There seem to be so many approaches to the problem.
> 
> True, but it more or less follows the progress of printers.  It 
also follows
> my learning curve.  So, the older inksets are not exactly what I 
might want
> to use today.  
> 
> Lately you'll notice that I not longer am satisfied with just a 
single
> toner.  The UT2 and UT7, while they have a sepia, in the neutral 
range they
> are only adjustable along a straight line between carbon and the 
cool toner
> -- close to the Lab B axis.  While this is more flexible than a 
monotone
> inkset, when every paper has a slightly different reaction to ink, 
not only
> along the Lab B axis (yellow-blue) but also along the A axis 
(red/magenta -
> green), I became frustrated at the inability to accurately profile 
along
> that axis.  Add to this variations that inevitably occur from one 
batch of
> ink to the next, and I've decided for my perfectionist side, I need 
to be
> able to profile both Lab A and B, not to mention "linearize" the 
gray ramp.
> 
> The latest approach -- what I sometimes call the 4K+cm -- is 
basically a K3
> approach: K, LK and LLK.  But since carbon is too warm for most of 
what I
> do, I tone the prints neutral with LC and LM. Since my old 7500 has 
big,
> non-variable dots, I need to dilute the LC by 50% to increase 
smoothness.
> With modern printers this is really not necessary.  
> 
> I also add a 4th K by having PK in the mix.  This ads a little 
between the
> LK and MK, but, again, in modern printers the effect is minimal.  
It's
> mostly there so that I can print glossy without changing inks.
> 
> I've also added a more dilute LLK, what I call an LLLK (.3 LLK, .7 
base).
> This adds no visible smoothness on the 2200.  What it does is lower
> lightfastness.  Not only are more dilute inks less lightfast, but 
also they
> print warmer.  This thus causes more LC and LM to be needed.  Color 
pigments
> are not, in general, as lightfast as the MIS carbon inks.
> 
> I also have C in my 2200.  This is marginally useful in matte 
printing, but
> I expect it to be useful for glossy because a neutralized PK is 
darker than
> a warm PK.  So, I'll generate a 100% black patch with a combination 
of PK
> and C. 
> 
> In my 220 I'm going to go to a 3K+cmy, adding the yellow.  This 
allows not
> only a sepia, but it also allows me to match the brightened paper 
to the mat
> board.  I currently print down the too-bright paper borders with 2% 
carbon,
> but a little yellow will do a better job.  (It can also be 
interesting for
> slit tones.)
> 
> One reason for my current approach is also so that standard inks 
can be
> used.  One thing we've all probably found as we move from one 
printer to the
> next is that we have wasted inks.  I'd like to stop that.  I'd also 
like to
> have the maximum competition from sellers.  (I'm an old antitrust 
law
> enforcer.  So, promoting competition has been a lifestyle for 
years.)  So,
> I'm cheap and like low prices for good products.  Competition is 
what gets
> us that result.
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>