Digital BW, The Print

Hi Daniel,

>I'm trying to use QTR's create-icc-rgb to linearize my workflow for
>UT7 inks. I'm following Paul Roark's recipe for combining a linearization
>with his Photoshop curves (http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/
>Embedding_Photoshop_Curves_in_ICCs.pdf).

>It seems to almost work. The problem is that the resulting ICC profile
>is not at all linear at the high density end, and my shadows
>get blocked up. ... I'm using a PrintFIX Pro spectrometer
>and its measure tool to generate the input for create-icc.

You're probably noticing the difference between how a "color managed"
workflow prints the image and how the more linear standard used for the old
curves handled the image.

The ICC reads your working gray space and uses those standards.  I, for
example, now use the standard Gray Gamma 2.2 as my gray working space.
Unlike the strictly linear printing of the popular rips and my old curves,
Gray Gamma 2.2 compresses the shadow tones significantly.  As such, your
images will print darker.  The good news is that, with a calibrated monitor,
the prints should match the monitor better even if they do not match the
prints that you used to print with the curves and the non-color managed
workflow.

There are several ways to coordinate the view and print.  Since I prefer to
use the standard GG 2.2, I use a layer to correct for a printing approach
that does not read my working space. (I'll send one off list.)

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com