Digital BW, The Print

In a message dated 6/6/07 4:32:26 AM, michele@... writes:


> Hi David, I am experiencing the same issues since I recently get a
> 3800. After profiling all my papers with PFP I made some comparisons
> and although prints made with PFP profiles (with extended grays target
> embedded) looks nice I feel more comfortable with the ABW workflow.
> 
> The only thing I missed with ABW is the ability to soft proofing and
> profiling different papers. At the moment I discovered a way to
> profile the ABW mode here:
> 
> http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi045/essay.html
> 
> and just started some testing.
> 
> Does anyone tried to build his own profil to be used in the ABW mode?
> 

Lets see, where do I begin? Roy Harrington, whose software this is about, it 
on this list, so he can respond directly. I have a few comments. One is that 
this piece says you need an EyeOne to profile AWB mode. Not true, you can to it 
much more affordably with PrintFIX PRO to read the patches and produce the 
measurement sets for QTR. Unfortunately Roy still has his spectro-basesd 
measurement materials in a folder labeled EyeOne in QTR, and his directions written 
for an EyeOne, even though we've gone out of our way to list export modes 
specifically for CreateICC and QTR in our software. Oh well.

Other comments about the article: It raves about the neutrality of AWB, then 
mentions that its as much as five b* units off neutral in some areas, with no 
real way to deal with that. This is why I prefer profiling the color mode, and 
getting a* and b* values within one unit if neutral, plus full control of how 
I deal with paper white, paper brighteners etc.

As for the "color versus AWB" graph, my PrintFIX PRO 2 color profiled 
grayramps are more linear than the AWB plot in this graph, so its a matter of 
comparing a bad color output to a good AWB one. There are many ways to skin a cat, 
but it bothers me when people dismiss our methods out of hand for the wrong 
reasons. If you are a fanatic for one tenth of a point more density in blacks, or 
one percent less yellow in light grays, than those are actual reasons. All the 
talk about better shadow detail, on the other hand, is just wrong, I can get 
as   much shadow detail as I want, with full control of it, from the 
PFP2/color mode method. 

C. David Tobie
Product Technology Manager
ColorVision Business Division
DataColor Inc.
CDTobie@...
www.colorvision.com


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