Digital BW, The Print

I thought I would share my experiences.  This does take a fair amount 
of time to get started, and I'd be interested in any feedback.

I am trying to set up black and white printing with MIS UT2 inks on an
Epson 1280.  My first attempts, using the Roark curves in PhotoShop6
have been troubled with ``posterization.''   I looked through the
newsgroup, and there seem to be intermittent but persistent complaints
about this, and various approaches.  To my reading, there doesn't 
appear to be a consistent solution.  

While playing with this, I decided to try a black-only print with the
MIS Eboni black.  This doesn't have the posterization, and has a nice
tonal range.  Much better than my previous results with the full UT2
set.  The only problem with the black-only is the perceptible 
dot/dither pattern.  Which isn't so perceptible from viewing distance.

Next, I tried QuadTone RIP.  I couldn't get it working correctly on
Linux, but I have an old version of Mandrake, and that is probably the
problem.  I set it up on one of our home-networked computers that has
XP, and then print to the printer attached to the original computer, 
now booted as windows98se in order to share the printer.  This does 
not seem to have the posterization problem and has a nice tonal 
range.  

Next I have to try to get the monitor to match the printer.  Then I 
will try to compare QTR and BO on similar prints.

> I thought I would share my experiences.  This does take a fair 
amount 
> of time to get started, and I'd be interested in any feedback.
> 
> I am trying to set up black and white printing with MIS UT2 inks on 
an
> Epson 1280.  My first attempts, using the Roark curves in PhotoShop6
> have been troubled with ``posterization.''   I looked through the
> newsgroup, and there seem to be intermittent but persistent 
complaints
> about this, and various approaches.  To my reading, there doesn't 
> appear to be a consistent solution.  

I had this problem initially - on a 1290 with the older VM inkset.  
You might want to try Tyler Boley's curves, which you can download 
from the downloads area.

The other thing which really helps is to use a 16 bit workflow.  With 
PS6 this will be difficult as you lack many useful features.  However 
it gives you more data in the shadow areas, which helps to avoid the 
separation you get when applying a curve.  Working in 8-bit and then 
converting to 16-bit before printing won't help - you can't create 
data you don't already have.

Just something else for you to try...  Keep going - you'll get to a 
set up you're happy with in the end.  It took me about a year of 
going back to the wet darkroom, remembering all the difficulties I 
had there, and then trying something new on the computer.  I now get 
results that I'm happy with.

Chris

Thank you for your suggestions.  They do raise 2 questions:

1-Is the 8 vs 16 bit quality of the image set by the camera/scanner?  
(When I convert color AdobeRGB images to greyscale, using Image->Mode-
>Grayscale in Photoshop, I get 8 bit files.)

2-You mention the limitations of PhotoShop6.  Should I upgrade to 
CS?  Or could I do the same thing with PictureWindow, which some 
people seem to like? (I downloaded it to try; it also has a learning 
curve.  Is it worth using, or after all the time will I be kicking 
myself for having not used CS in the first, or second, place?)

Thanks again,  Tom


> The other thing which really helps is to use a 16 bit workflow.  
With 
> PS6 this will be difficult as you lack many useful features.  
However 
> it gives you more data in the shadow areas, which helps to avoid 
the 
> separation you get when applying a curve.  Working in 8-bit and 
then 
> converting to 16-bit before printing won't help - you can't create 
> data you don't already have.
> 
> Just something else for you to try...  Keep going - you'll get to a 
> set up you're happy with in the end.  It took me about a year of 
> going back to the wet darkroom, remembering all the difficulties I 
> had there, and then trying something new on the computer.  I now 
get 

> results that I'm happy with.
> 
> Chris

> 1-Is the 8 vs 16 bit quality of the image set by the 
camera/scanner?  
> (When I convert color AdobeRGB images to greyscale, using Image-
>Mode-
> >Grayscale in Photoshop, I get 8 bit files.)

Yes - basically you can't (usefully) add bits to an image.  My 
scanner (Minolta DSIII) has a 12 bit depth (from memory) which is 
stretched to 16 or squeezed to 8 depending on which settings you 
choose.  In 16 bit mode there will be gaps in the data.  To get from 
12 to 8 bits you dispose of some (valuable) information.
 
> 2-You mention the limitations of PhotoShop6.  Should I upgrade to 
> CS?  Or could I do the same thing with PictureWindow, which some 
> people seem to like? (I downloaded it to try; it also has a 
learning 
> curve.  Is it worth using, or after all the time will I be kicking 
> myself for having not used CS in the first, or second, place?)
> 
I use CS, and used PS6 before.  I would say that the ability to use 
layers in 16 bit is very important.  I'm afraid I have no experience 
with Picture Window, although have heard good things about it - if it 
can do this then it's worth a shot.

Cheers

Chris