Digital BW, The Print

As I matter of principle, I would like to be able to make a 100% carbon pigment print on Arches watercolor paper (and others) that is visually neutral.  I appreciate warm prints also.  However, I do like neutral prints for many situations, and it's a challenge to make a "neutral" print with only carbon pigments.

So, the latest effort has been to explore Black Only on the 7800.  Eboni black only on that printer (as with all 3.5 pl printers, I assume) makes a print on Arches where the Lab B (main measure of warmth) is dead flat from the (creamy natural) paper base white to the midtones, where it then heads down to an actual slight negative Lab B at 100%.

But, black only printing is too rough for me to use in almost any situation.

However, blending the Black Only profile with an Eboni-6 profile with the QTR sliders makes a print that is visually quite neutral, with a maximum Lab B rise of 1.0.  

A 50:50 mix of Eboni BO with Eb6 is, of course, not going to be as smooth as the straight Eboni-6 print, but it's good enough for many prints, particularly at display print size.  At arm's length in my normal office light (not quite gallery bright) most could not tell the difference in smoothness between Arches test strips made with the 50:50 blend and the straight Eboni-6 profile.

Cool.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com