Digital BW, The Print

I use the brightness and contrast sliders in the print dialog box to 
match my print to what I see on the screen. (BTW I have gone through 
the gamma routine and have adjusted my monitor to a step wedge.) I 
can't remember the exact settings I use, but they remain the same for 
each print -- at least so far -- and I haven't had any resultant 
problems with posterizing, banding, etc. That said, I may experiment 
with a gamma adjustment, just to see how effective that is.

Chris
--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Todd Flashner <tflash@e...> 
wrote:
> 
> > 1)  According to Paul's workflow, I should be using the
> > Photoshop 5 default color settings in PS 6. This brings up the
> > question as to whether I should be assigning a profile to my
> > image file before I edit it. For example, if it's an RGB file, do 
I
> > bring it in untagged (no color management) or do I assign the
> > working space, i.e., sRGB? When I convert the file to grayscale,
> > PS assigns the PS5 default grayscale profile, gamma 2.2. Since
> > I'm on a Mac, shouldn't I be assigning it a gamma of 1.8? Should
> > I be saving my grayscale file with an imbedded profile or not?
> 
> Sounds like you are scanning in RGB, then converting to Grayscale, 
then back
> to RGB? If so you can probably skip the conversion to grayscale by 
using
> Monochromatic in Channel Mixer.
> 
> If your sRGB is set up as your color working space in PS Color 
Settings
> you'll be fine, you won't need to "assign" a profile, it'll be done 
for you.
> BTW, as I use Adobe RGB as my color working space I've chosen to 
use it for
> my VM space as well with good results.
> 
> If you do want to convert to grayscale (or if you scan in 
grayscale) you are
> probably best served to use gamma 2.2 because sRGB is a gamma 2.2 
color
> space, so there'll be less shift when you convert between them.
> 
> Don't worry about the Mac "being" gamma 1.8, to my understanding 
that's more
> convention than anything in the hardware, and even the convention 
has
> changed. Many highend prepress people, retouchers etc, use 
AdobeRGB, which
> is gamma 2.2 and even calibrate their monitors to 6500K, gamma 2.2.
> 
> > 2)  In the Epson Printer dialog, do any of you use the Brightness
> > or Contrast sliders, or should this be left at 0?
> 
> I haven't used them but I think others do.
>  
> > 3) The reason for question number 2 is that my prints seem a bit
> > less contrasty (particularly in the shadows) and maybe slightly
> > lighter then when I view them on the monitor (I'm assuming that
> > my monitor is calibrated correctly). In one of Paul's text files, 
he
> > mentions using the Black (RGB) curve of his curve set to adjust
> > for monitor to print matching. Won't this affect or alter the
> > separate R-G-B curves in a non-linear fashion? Placing a point
> > in the center of the Black curve should just affect the mid-tones,
> > no? I just want to adjust the gamma so that my prints come out a
> > bit darker, like what I see on the monitor. How do I do this?
> 
> If you want to be a purist, just make a separate adjustment layer 
for this
> gamma tweak and set it's blend mode to luminosity. That keeps the 
colors
> from being effected. I always make sure that Paul's VM curves are 
at the
> topmost layer in the stack, which helps too.
>  
> Todd