Digital BW, The Print

Hi, Paul! 

I have the same problem as Daniel with blocked shadows when printing 
with icc that have been created from your curves as per embedding 
Photoshop curves instructions.  The inkset is UT7, printer Epson 2100 
and I am using the PrintFix Pro spectro. Lates version of Quadtone 
RIP. 

First I will describe my icc creation process to make sure that I am 
doing everything correctly.

1) When printing Paul's Grey Gamma 2.2 21-step wedge for profile 
creation, I open it in PS, change mode to RGB (in my case Adobe RGB), 
apply selected curve (in my case EEM carbon) and print it with color 
management off (both in PS and in printer driver).  I get these LAB 
values

96.47	0.83	-0.52
91.77	1.20	1.26
87.66	1.50	2.93
84.51	1.75	4.06
81.10	1.94	5.10
78.27	2.15	5.73
74.96	2.32	6.31
71.08	2.52	6.89
67.74	2.65	7.21
64.32	2.73	7.40
61.00	2.85	7.47
58.30	2.87	7.40
54.48	2.85	7.31
50.07	2.78	6.91
45.65	2.56	6.11
41.53	2.39	5.05
37.45	2.14	3.56
32.18	1.69	2.11
26.90	1.28	1.14
20.37	0.97	0.92
16.27	0.46	0.25 

I create the ICC profile from the measurement TXT file and the RGG-
RAW-16.RAW.

Then I print the same GG 2.2 21-step wedge from PS using the newly 
created profile (using perceptual with BPC) - in this case I leave 
the file in greyscale, because the profile takes care of "converting" 
it to RGB.  The shadows get blocked up and the result is much LESS 
linear using ICC than it would be using simple curves approach. These 
are the measurments.

96.54	0.72	-0.74
92.15	1.01	0.87
88.30	1.34	2.48
84.22	1.63	3.98
80.09	1.92	5.15
75.99	2.17	6.06
71.70	2.40	6.76
67.20	2.61	7.19
63.24	2.70	7.39
58.82	2.81	7.41
54.24	2.78	7.24
49.49	2.66	6.70
45.01	2.45	5.96
39.97	2.14	4.40
35.57	1.84	2.92
30.55	1.36	1.64
26.69	1.12	1.10
22.54	1.05	1.10
17.45	0.65	0.55
16.16	0.43	0.27
16.10	0.50	0.19

I have two questions really

1) Perhaps I am doing something wrong?

2) If I am doing it coreectly and the above results are to be 
expected, then I must confess that I do not quite understand the 
approach that you suggested to Daniel by using a correction layer, 
nor do I understand what you suggest to be the cause of such blocked 
shadoows. Could you explain it a bit more and perhaps send the 
correction layer to my address off list.  

The way I see it it is not a "view to print matching" problem, 
because in my case a file with known and "correct" values (21-step 
wedge) prints wrongly though ICC. 


Best regards

Didzis

PS
Unrelated issue I have is that my Windows XP appears to have problems 
recognizing these icc. First, I cannot install the profile 
using "install profile" - I get an error message about invalid color 
profile. I copy the icc manually into windows icc directory - but 
even then Photoshop only recognizes the icc only after I "repair" the 
file name/internal name mismatch error that these profiles have.  



> Hi Daniel,
> 
> 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