Digital BW, The Print

Hi all,

For a number of reasons, I'm going to be producing a large quantity of
B&W prints at Winkflash (obviously these are not fine art prints).
I've printed several test prints, including a 21-step and 51-step
wedge. Surprisingly, the photo printer(s) are very well behaved. I
plotted the density curves and their shape and smoothness rivals
linearized output from my in-house printers, except for the shadows
where things start to block up in the 92-100% range.

So here's the challenge...I obviously don't have control over the
Winkflash printers and they don't allow for embedded profiles either.
They assume sRGB and disregard any profile. My plan is just to create
a B&W ICC profile for soft proofing (using QTR-Create-ICC) and make my
Photoshop corrections specific to that soft proof. 

Does making tonal corrections that are device dependent when you don't
control the printer (and can't embed a profile) seem like a good
approach? Is there a better way? 

Also, I have an X-Rite 810 densitometer, not a specto. Can
QTR-Create-ICC be made to work with just density data?

Thanks for any suggestions.
Peter.

Couldn't you create a profile of the printer and then convert to 
profile before you send it to winkflash?  I think DryCreek photo has 
a matte profile for them available for download.

I use Winkflash myself for glossy photos.  I have yet to find a 
paper for Epson printers that has a convincing gloss for B&W.

The only odd thing I noticed with Winkflash was that they seemed to 
have a high level of compression, or something similar.  A few shots 
of mine with smooth and solid colors looked noticably fuzzy, like 
jpeg artifacts.  Prints done from the same file on a different 
Frontier and on a Canon inkjet were far sharper.  This isn't 
something I've noticed more than a few times, but beware.

Roger

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Peter" 
<spamme2001@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> 
> For a number of reasons, I'm going to be producing a large 
quantity of
> B&W prints at Winkflash (obviously these are not fine art prints).
> I've printed several test prints, including a 21-step and 51-step
> wedge. Surprisingly, the photo printer(s) are very well behaved. I
> plotted the density curves and their shape and smoothness rivals
> linearized output from my in-house printers, except for the shadows
> where things start to block up in the 92-100% range.
> 
> So here's the challenge...I obviously don't have control over the
> Winkflash printers and they don't allow for embedded profiles 
either.
> They assume sRGB and disregard any profile. My plan is just to 
create
> a B&W ICC profile for soft proofing (using QTR-Create-ICC) and 
make my
> Photoshop corrections specific to that soft proof. 
> 
> Does making tonal corrections that are device dependent when you 
don't

> control the printer (and can't embed a profile) seem like a good
> approach? Is there a better way? 
> 
> Also, I have an X-Rite 810 densitometer, not a specto. Can
> QTR-Create-ICC be made to work with just density data?
> 
> Thanks for any suggestions.
> Peter.
>

I think this should work. Yes you can use QTR Create ICC with just a
densitometer. No colour proofing but you can manage luminance/density.  I
have not done this but if you post this specific question Roy or others can
answer as to how to arrange the columnar data.

> From: Peter <spamme2001@...>
> Reply-To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 01:23:06 -0000
> To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Digital BW] The Winkflash Challenge
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> For a number of reasons, I'm going to be producing a large quantity of
> B&W prints at Winkflash (obviously these are not fine art prints).
> I've printed several test prints, including a 21-step and 51-step
> wedge. Surprisingly, the photo printer(s) are very well behaved. I
> plotted the density curves and their shape and smoothness rivals
> linearized output from my in-house printers, except for the shadows
> where things start to block up in the 92-100% range.
> 
> So here's the challenge...I obviously don't have control over the
> Winkflash printers and they don't allow for embedded profiles either.
> They assume sRGB and disregard any profile. My plan is just to create
> a B&W ICC profile for soft proofing (using QTR-Create-ICC) and make my
> Photoshop corrections specific to that soft proof.
> 
> Does making tonal corrections that are device dependent when you don't
> control the printer (and can't embed a profile) seem like a good
> approach? Is there a better way?
> 
> Also, I have an X-Rite 810 densitometer, not a specto. Can
> QTR-Create-ICC be made to work with just density data?
> 
> Thanks for any suggestions.
> Peter.