Digital BW, The Print

Hi Clayton,

Thanks for the advice. Looking at my graphs for the Media setting
tests for this paper (Photo Rag), I can see that almost all the media
settings have their maximum DMax at somewhere between Step 96 and Step
98 on the wedge. Am I right in thinking that if I decide to use
Ultrasmooth as the media setting for this paper then I should try and
aim to get the whole image tonal range 'under' the max Dmax step for
this paper ? In this case this would be Step 98 which is equivalent to
an RGB value of 5 (max Dmax 1.563) ?

If so I guess I could achieve this goal in either of 2 ways:
i) Add an adjustment levels/curves layer so that a 0 input results in
an RGB output of 5. Add this layer before printing
ii) Use the colour density settings in the printer driver to reduce
the ink load (same as color density ?) until the max Dmax has been
moved to Step 100

Any comments ?

Rgds
Rick

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones"
<cj@...> wrote:
>
> Hello rick,
> 
> >In summary I printed the darkest 20 steps from a 100 Step wedge on
> >Photo Rag (308g) using the following Media settings in the Epson
> >printer driver...
> > 
> >...Strangely with the exception of WCRW all the other prints show 
> >a reversal in the last (darkest) couple of steps (98-100). 
> >...Can anyone help to explain ?
> 
> I think the reversals are caused by too heavy an ink load.  Each paper
> has its own carrying capacity, so ink load variations need to be part
> of the testing.
> 
> My favorite paper (on a 2400 with K3) is VFA, and I get the best dmax
> with the ink load set to -5%.  My next favorite paper is STA which
> does best at -0%.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Clayton
> 
> 
> Info on black and white digital printing at    
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm
> I-Trak 2.1   http://www.cjcom.net/itrak.htm
>