Digital BW, The Print

I am curious if others have had the same experience I have had printing B&W digitally...

I started making the transition from analog to digital a year and a half ago (had I known, I would have started by first taking up drinking!) and feel as though I have just recently started getting a more or less firm grip.

I print color only very occasionally but when I do my calibrated monitor and printer don't seem to have much trouble giving me a first print that is reasonably in the ball park. But with B&W I find that though print color is usually within a single point of correct, contrast and density (brightness if you prefer) don't look right in the print unless they look way over the top on the monitor. This isn't really a problem. I understand the transmittance/reflectance dichotomy and have simply adapted to the difference in my workflow. But I would like to know if others have seen the same thing printing B&W as compared to color.

I presume the difference is due to the fact that color as we all know, hides a lot of sins and color printers aren't paying attention to density and contrast as much as B&W photographers.

David Kachel