Digital BW, The Print

What does the monitor gamma have to do with the fininshed print if 
the monitor matches the printed image? I use Windows XP and have had 
my monitor set to Gamma 2.2 for all usage of Photoshop and all other 
programs. Today I reset my monitor Gamma to 1.8 and get a much longer 
tonal range in my images. The Gamma 2.2 compresses the lower values 
too much for any detail in the 90 to 95 per cent range to be visible 
in the print. I use MIS FSN inks and an adjusted printing curve from 
their website as well to print to an Epson 1280 on Epson Matte 
Heavyweight paper. I also use the plugin from PiezoBW and select 
their inkset and Epson Matte Heavyweight paper profile. A change to 
the Dot Density % from 100 to 125, which lays down more ink creates a 
match between the print and the monitor, with the print being the 
criteria to match.

> From: Johnny Eades [mailto:jeades1@...]
>
> What does the monitor gamma have to do with the fininshed print if
> the monitor matches the printed image? I use Windows XP and have had
> my monitor set to Gamma 2.2 for all usage of Photoshop and all other
> programs.

The monitor gamma means nothing, if you're using color-managed applications
like Photoshop. It only matters in non-color-managed applications, like
Windows Internet Explorer.

> Today I reset my monitor Gamma to 1.8 and get a much longer
> tonal range in my images. The Gamma 2.2 compresses the lower values
> too much for any detail in the 90 to 95 per cent range to be visible
> in the print.

If this makes a difference, it's because you've changed your gamma to 1.8,
but you're still using a monitor profile that tells Photoshop that it's
gamma is 2.2. This is a Bad Thing. If you're not getting good screen-print
matching, you should attack it by trying to improve the calibration of your
system. Whatever you set your monitor gamma to (and 2.2 is the Windows
standard), you should have a monitor profile that accurately describe it. If
you still don't get good matching, then perhaps you should pay someone to
make custom profiles for the inks and papers that you use.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@...