Digital BW, The Print

Hi Jean-Marc,

You use the creat icc profile, just like you would a colour profile to soft
proof and print.
You set photoshop to "let photoshop manage colour", but you also set the
printer's set up to ABW with the same settings you used to create the
patches.

Mike


On 27/08/07, Jean-Marc Humbert <humbertjm@...> wrote:
>
>   Dear all,
>
> My tools : Epson 3800, PrintFix Pro v2.1, PSCS2, QTR, calibrated Eizo
> screen.
>
> I am fan of B&W and just bought the 3800! What a fantastic tool!
>
> My favorite papers are semi gloss (such as Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl)
> since IMO the blacks are richer and deeper than with the fine art
> papers (I use also Hahnemuhle Photo Rag).
>
> Now of course I would like to fine tune my settings with the 3800 and
> I very carefully studied the excellent workflows described by Eric
> Chan
> (http://people.csail.mit.edu/ericchan/dp/Epson3800/printworkflow.html)
> and Giorgo Trucco
> (http://www.outbackphoto.com/printinginsights/pi045/essay.html).
>
> My first conclusions :
>
> with no specific profile, the results with B&W pics printed on FAP
> are really better with the Epson ABW mode (set to dark, 2880dpi and
> semi gloss paper) than when using the Color mode (all my files are
> RGB/16bit); with the color mode, I loose all details on the deepest
> shadows and the transitions are poor.
>
> With the PrintFix Pro (v.2) software and the Colorvision
> spectrocolorimeter, the profile I have made for Fine Art Paper does
> make a real improvement for the color pictures, still not for the B&W
> ones (Epson ABW mode is still better with respect to the deepest
> shadow details).
>
> Following Chan's and Trucco's recommendations, I did the following to
> optimize b&w prints on FAP paper:
>
> - I printed a 100-step gray scale (as provided by Roy
> Harrington with QTR) using the Epson ABW mode (dark, 2880 dpi) : I
> noticed visually that there was a huge gap between the 100% black and
> the 99% (confirmed by the readings of density from 2.06 to 1.70)
>
> - I read the 100 patches (plus 1 for the 100% white) with
> the PrintFix spectro using the "measure" menu (which gives in a txt
> file the Lab readings)
>
> - I converted the txt file using QTR Create ICC.exe to
> obtain an .icc profile.
>
> Now, I am blocked! How can I use such profile (I put it in the
> relevant windows folder) to print a picture under Photoshop using the
> same settings as for the 100-step gray scale? Indeed, how can I apply
> such profile to print going through the Epson ABW mode (I had to
> check "lets printer determine the color" to be able to print through
> the ABW mode; if I apply the profile in the "Print with preview",
> then I will have to check the "no color management" option in the
> Epson driver and use the color mode.)
>
> I must have missed something�! In both above mentionned workflows,
> their authors mentionned that you may use the .icc profile obtained
> via a spectrophotometer/colorimeter to "soft prove" and "print".
>
> What I did (certainly wrongly) to move forward : I applied to my file
> the profile (using the photoshop "convert to profile" option) and
> then printed through the ABW mode : the result was really not
> satisfactory with all my deep shadow details converted to 100%
> blacks.
>
> The question I have is according to these workflows, how can I use
> this profile and still go trough the ABW mode to print. The question
> is not about neutrality but about linearization (when I see the 100
> step gray scale, I see the need to have a better transition in the
> 100% to 95% areas).
>
> Thank you for your contribution and your help.
>
> Jean-Marc Humbert
> Paris, France
>
> 
>


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