As I alluded to in my last post, you can do better with ABW and an ICC. You can use the ICC to do a preserve numbers soft-proof (yes, those pesky, much-maligned soft-proofs again) and edit knowing to a reasonable level of confidence what the initial print will look like, all without crushing the shadows. You can go a step further and use the output file from constructing the ICC to create a Photoshop curve to offset ABW's non-linearity when printing. You can do both. But to be honest, anyone with this level of understanding is unlikely to be using ABW, they're more likely to use QTR, either OEM or one of the monochrome inksets. I just wanted to make that point that there are alternatives to either using ABW as a black box, or to living with crushed shadows.
---In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, <forums@...> wrote :
I don’t think crushed perceptually linear is as good as Gamma 2.2 (in general) either. I just think it’s closer to the crushed linear of most iffy screens than even what ABW is trying to do with its own out-of-lin configuration.
So . . . . when you’re in the swamps swim like a gator.
But otherwise go Piezography/QTR and full gamma 2.2
It’s entirely eye-of-the-beholder on this.
best,
Walker