Digital BW, The Print

Mark, I had questioned the color setting used to make the ABW. It is also
part of my work flow with a 4800 to match my print color of the Sepia Piezo
set which runs with Image Print and my Epson 7000, also with Museum black. I
am feeling good with my selected inks and tonal range today : )  

 

Eric Neilsen

Eric Neilsen Photography

4101 Commerce Street, Suite 9

Dallas, TX 75226

 

www.ericneilsenphotography.com

skype me with ejprinter

 

  _____  

From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010 6:48 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Aardenburg-Imaging 30 MLux Hr results

 

  



--- In DigitalBlackandWhit
<mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint%40yahoogroups.com>
eThePrint@yahoogroups.com, David Kachel <david@...> wrote:

> Where can I find information on how to read this?

There's a lot of supporting information on the AaI&A website. Most of it
free to the public. That said, I know I have to do much better in bringing
all AaI&A members up to speed on all aspect of the reports. I do tend to
view this situation much like any task of higher learning. Start with some
basics, take a deep breath, and add to your level of knowledge as you go. My
job is to serve as your guide, but first I had to set up the testing
infrastructure and get some data into play. That task is well in hand now,
so I will turn my attention to more tutorials this year.

Many of my members already understand CIELAB and the color difference
numbers, i.e., those delta E values and L*, a*, and b* values that are
posted in my reports. But the I* metric is superior and it is designed to
make it all even easier. Read the I* scores for average overall response and
also the weakest 10% of the colors just like you'd read a grade point
average. 90% and above is excellent tone and color retention, 80% good, 70%
satisfactory, 60% poor. 100% is a perfect match and hence a perfect score.
AaI&A also gives a "Conservation Display Rating" which is the range of
megalux hours that the product can be exposed to and still show little or no
noticeable fade. Paul has not given you those ratings, and indeed some of
the samples in test and posted here aren't even at their rating limit yet,
so the tests are ongoing. But the cool thing about the data is that, like
Paul, you can directly and fairly compare the scores at fixed exposure
levels. Paul has showed you the 30 megalux hour data which is equivalent to
15 WIR display years and about 60 Kodak years based on these companies'
choice of "standardized" light levels in the real world. I believe there is
way too much variability in the real world to choose just one "standardized"
level, so I prefer to provide a table in the AaI&A reports and let people
estimate their own display times based on the megaluix hour ratings and
reasonable knowledge of the lighting levels in their chosen environments.

Some other points I'd like to make:

1). All the data Paul posted is true B&W mode printing except the HP Vivera
sample. That's a color print, so the 50% midtone is indeed a gray, but the
summary scores are for the system as it makes color prints. The scores would
improve, I believe, if we run a true monochrome print test, because the HP
photo grays are more stable than some of the pure colors, but I haven't
recieved any B&W samples yet to test for the HP Vivera pigmented inks.

2). I'm pretty liberal about members sharing the AaI&A data, in terms of
sharing with clients or using in educational settings. But posting of the
AaI&A data to websites violates the AaI&A copyright without written
permission to do so from AaI&A. Paul has my permission, and I thank him for
his willingness to help me spread the word about the AaI&A research. Thank
you, Paul.

3). Someone in the thread asked about the settings related to these test
results and noted limited value without more information on the settings
used to make the prints. Quite right, and the AaI&A test reports go to great
length to document those settings. I rely on members providing this
information to me when the samples are submitted, and more and more, I'm
requesting screen shots of the driver menu settings, and AaI&A members are
for the most part more than willing to provide. So, for example, if you
download the Epson ABW sample that Paul excerpted, the description page
shows the ABW settings used to make the print in a screen shot.
Incidentally, the submitting member worked hard to match it to the Cone
Carbon Sepia color, and it's remarkably close in terms of initial hue and
chroma for both systems.

I hope my comments help without sounding overly self-serving. I know it
takes time to digest this research and that my job is just as much to
educate my audience as it is to collect the test results. I'm working on
that. I ask for a little patience.... and more members to help me continue
this research. The results to date fascinate even me (I've been doing this
type of testing for a couple of decades), and as a fellow printmaker, I'm
still learning a lot, too!

thanks,

Mark
http://www.aardenbu <http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com> rg-imaging.com





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