Digital BW, The Print

>>My 7900 does have problems with darks, some images have more details
on screen than on prints and I hoped monochrome inks would improve it, but
no luck. May be QTR curves will improve it?

to get 7900 ABW soft proofing (monitor vs print) matching you need to
generate a QTR Create ICC profile for each paper you use and use that to
soft proof and to print from gamma 2.2 images. Also I would use the neutral
rather than dark setting in ABW driver as this gives better darks. Also your
monitor should be profiled and not too bright (max 80 cd/m2) and your b&w
prints should be viewed under a bright light. I don't think you will improve
darks with QTR curves - the ABW driver is pretty good with nice dithering,
better to focus on getting that working properly.

Mike
2009/9/9 flashinet <flashinet@...>

>
>
> I'm back to report my first experience with monochrome printing.
> I've bought brand new Epson 1400 from OfficeMax for $200 and MIS UT14 inks.
> Today I had finally got inks and here the fun started.
>
> Early in the day I've prepared some prints on my Epson 7900 on Hahnemuhle
> Photo Rag printed with ABW driver and QTR created profiles.
>
> When I've got 1400 working I've printed the gray wedge, measured it after
> drying and made a profile. The I've printer wedge using profile and compared
> it to 7900 printed wedge. I can't display Excel graph here but I'll try to
> give the numbers, it's luminosity
> Epson Epson
> 1440 7900
>
> 96.67 96.88
> 94.3 95.64
> 92.06 94.2
> 89.43 92
> 87.24 90.82
> 84.94 89.2
> 82.01 87.26
> 79.26 85.9
> 76.65 84.25
> 73.55 82.34
> 70.27 80.58
> 68.07 79.14
> 65.43 76.9
> 63.34 75.55
> 61.61 73.95
> 59.45 71.82
> 57.22 70.41
> 55.66 68.7
> 53.68 66.89
> 51.33 65.16
> 49.63 63.42
> 47.56 61.34
> 46.02 59.76
> 44.51 58.04
> 42.26 55.87
> 40.67 54.37
> 39.31 52.58
> 37.18 50.79
> 35.78 48.9
> 34.82 47.03
> 33.55 44.81
> 33.19 43.26
> 32.75 41.26
> 31.64 39.26
> 31.39 37.66
> 30.82 35.62
> 29.79 33.82
> 29.53 31.95
> 29.18 30.25
> 28.17 28.4
> 27.91 26.97
> 27.49 25.4
> 26.63 23.77
> 26.53 22.5
> 26.01 21.51
> 25.14 20.52
> 24.57 19.28
> 23.92 18.9
> 22.79 18.35
> 22.32 17.9
> 16.34 17.2
>
> AS you see 7900 has much better linearity.
>
> Then I've printed out 4 images on 1400 to compare with prints from 7900.
> When I compared prints (dark, light and mid-tone images) I didn't see them
> different enough to speak about. Pretty much the same. Which is not a bad
> thing for $200 printer to give quality on a par with $4000 printer.
>
> My 7900 does have problems with darks, some images have more details
> on screen than on prints and I hoped monochrome inks would improve it, but
> no luck. May be QTR curves will improve it?
> Jacob Mann
>
> website: http://www.photo3dart.com
> blog: http://photo3dart.com/wordpress
>
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com<DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "flashinet" <flashinet@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hello everybody,
> >
> > I'm fine art photographer working mainly with black and white. I print my
> own photographs on Epson 7900 using ABW driver and like the results, I also
> exhibit my prints.
> > Still I'm reading about dedicated B&W printers and monochrome inks like
> Paleography or MIS and I'm worried that I'm missing something in quality .
> > I've made some research and figured that I can give it a try by buying
> Epson 1400 printer and UT14 inks.
> >
> > But the question is: Is it worth it? Is quality going to be so much
> better so it's worth all this money and trouble?
> >
> > Thanks you very much,
> > Jacob Mann
> >
> > website: http://www.photo3dart.com
> > blog: http://photo3dart.com/wordpress
> >
>
> 
>


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