Digital BW, The Print

Folks, 

I am new to the forum and have enjoyed reading the recent posts on the R2400. I am a 
serious amateur (Color and B/W) who made the switch to a digital SLR this summer. I also 
purchased the R2400 which I plan to use for both color and B/W printing. This is my first 
real photo printer and my first Epson printer. I am not doing any prepress work, just 
creating prints to share and (over time) to exhibit and sell. I will work from new DLSR 
captures and from scans of older film work. I have the latest Photoshop. 

So far I have tried the Ilford Smooth Pearl and the Epson Premium Semigloss, using the 
paper manufacturers' R2400 profiles for both. (I will try EEM and VFA eventually.) Other 
than a tendency for my screen to be more saturated/dark than the print (which others 
have also mentioned) I am getting attractive results. (BTW, I agree with the person who 
posted regarding the gloss on the Ilford vs. the Epson -- the gloss differential is much less 
pronounced on the ilford). I had been assuming that the difference between the screen 
and the print was due to the fact that my monitor is old (this is a MacG4 with an Apple 
Studio display -- both about 5 years old and in daily use). The effect is noticeable in both 
BW and color. I'd be interested to know if the others who have experienced this problem 
are also using older CRTs or not. I have calibrated/profiled the monitor using Monaco and 
still have a more saturated and darker screen image compared with my print. I could do a 
custom profile for the printer/paper combos I am using, but am not sure yet whether that 
is the  solution.

So far I have only printed B/W using a color image file and just set the ABW settings in the 
standard Epson R2400 print driver.  (That is, all my profiles stay the same.) I understand 
there are other ways to create a good B/W image, and I plan to do some reading, but I 
would be interested in knowing people's opinions about which paths to go down vs. 
simply using ABW from a color-optimized file (with respect to the R2400, that is), and 
whether there are resources on that specific topic. 

So to summarize, my questions are:

1) How can I be SURE I'm getting the best possible range of tones in my printing? Are there 
standard reference images I should try printing?

2) With respect to the screen differences, are there things I should try doing other than 
creating a custom profile with my monaco system?

3) For B/W printing on the R2400, what file preparation and printing approaches will be 
most fruitful?  I'm happy to do some experimenting but I don't want to reinvent the wheel. 
Just give me a pointer to a book or Website if you prefer.... 

4) I'm assuming the archival quality of the various RC papers is probably about the same. 
Am I wrong? 

Thanks for any advice you can provide to one starting the Digital B/W printing adventure. 

Linda

What gamma are you using for the apple monitor? I use 1.8, and the 
screen matches really well, even without any fancy calibration (just 
the OSX 10.4 calibrator)

For converting to B/W, I found the power retouche studio b/w to be 
better than using the channel mixer, and better fred miranda's silver 
oxide plug-in.

Not all RC papers are equal in terms of longeveity. The epson papers 
are rated mch higher by wilhelm. Something like 100 years vs 30 years 
for the ilford. That is why I avoind the ilford papers, even though 
they do look great.....

I am sure others will heplful here...those were good questions.>DM
On Aug 31, 2005, at 10:02 AM, Linda J. Thorsen wrote:

>  2) With respect to the screen differences, are there things I should 
> try doing other than
>  creating a custom profile with my monaco system?
>
>  3) For B/W printing on the R2400, what file preparation and printing 
> approaches will be
>  most fruitful?  I'm happy to do some experimenting but I don't want 
> to reinvent the wheel.
>  Just give me a pointer to a book or Website if you prefer....
>
>  4) I'm assuming the archival quality of the various RC papers is 
> probably about the same.
>  Am I wrong? 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Linda,

Welcome to the B&W forum.  

The 2400 is the perfect printer for what you're doing.  I just got one
myself.  

> ...
 
> 1) How can I be SURE I'm getting the best possible range of tones in my
> printing? Are there
> standard reference images I should try printing?

To be sure the print is adequately separating the B&W scale and doing so
smoothly, I test with "21-step" test files.  There are some posted on my web
site.

I then use a spectrophotometer (densitometer that also reads color values)
to check the dmax and other points on the test file.

 
> 2) With respect to the screen differences, are there things I should try
> doing other than
> creating a custom profile with my monaco system?


> 
> 3) For B/W printing on the R2400, what file preparation and printing
> approaches will be most fruitful? 

It mostly takes experience.  Be sure to use the levels adjustment to be sure
you're not wasting any of the scale (if you want full scale images).  With
B&W the density differences are all we have to work with.  So, I try to make
as good a use of it as the paper will allow.  You may notice we B&W printers
obsess over the dmax of our systems.


> 4) I'm assuming the archival quality of the various RC papers is probably
> about the same.

No, unfortunately, more RC papers have acidic interior papers that limit
their lives.  (Many are suspicious that the RC character of them is also a
problem, but that may be history.)  The Epson Premium glossy papers are the
major exception.  Wilhelm rates them at the same life he rates the best rag
papers.  Costco Kirkland glossy inkjet paper has a buffered interior paper
also, like the Epson Premium papers.  So, it may well be archival also.
It's also dirt cheap and gives an excellent image -- just 8x10.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com