Digital BW, The Print

I've been finding it useful to scan in 16 bit with as wide a 
histogram as I can work in the software.  Then if can duplicate that 
file, convert to 8 bit, try various curves to spread the tone 
appropriately.  Save the curve and apply it to the original 16 bit.

The resulting histogram looks better and covers more tones.  Once I 
have that in place it doens't matter much to me (so far) which file I 
continue with.

Cleavis (still learning the front end)