Digital BW, The Print

"remononaz1" <homershannon@...> wrote:
>
> I have been using and liking Red River's Fine Art White paper.

Is that the Red River Aurora White or some other paper?


> However, when I print with it using the UT-14 ink set, including the Ebony black ink, position #21 in a step scale print never gets beyond 85.


Do you mean that the darkness of the 100% black patch #21 is the same as the darkness of the 85% patch on the 12-step test print?

> This is despite trying several borrowed ICCs and custom made ICCs using the Create ICC tool from QTR. Other than the fact that the ramps never get to 100, they are nicely even.


If the maximum black were at 85%, Create ICC would not make an ICC with that Lab L set of numbers.  You'd get an error message.

One thing that can be done if a paper does hit the dmax to soon (which is usually due to ink limit problems or a poor cross-over) is to use a Photoshop image adjustment curve that ends the ramp at the dmax point.  This goes into Create ICC-RGB along with the linearization data.

> Switching the Ebony black to regular black brings up the level very slightly, but never into the 90s. 


By "regular black" do you mean Claria black?

  
> As is, the paper prints nicely, but lacks the punch of deeper blacks.


It is not a high dmax paper.

The papers I mention at http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/UT14.pdf have reasonable dmaxs.  Try Hahnemuhle Photo Rag as a benchmark for dmax.

Red River's Premium Matte papers usually have a good dmax.



Paul
www.PaulRoark.com