Digital BW, The Print

That is my understanding too David. The technology is certainly there but the workflow of using monochrome inks has not been utilized by anyone as far as I can see by anyone in the POD high-speed low cost press realm.

As Ernst just mentioned they most likely could specialize in it by using gray inks only with a couple of toner channels for variation, but just aren't. Even using one gray channel could improve things a lot but limiting the process to cmyk is not going to work. There is a reason in the offset days we used duotones in the context of book projects where 4 color was also utilized for the color content, and that involved a separate printing with different inks, stripping, and registration.

The problem for a POD company would be people requesting clean neutral bw in the same book as 4 color, and of course everyone would be screaming for that too and that would be expensive with the technology as it stands now. 

But with the huge assortment of competing design companies trying to find a market share you would think that at least one of them would specialize in doing black and white only books. There is surely a market there and some day it will be addressed, but I guess not now.

John

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, David Kachel <david@...> wrote:
>
> From:  john <deanwork2003@...>
> 
> But maybe someone is specializing in pod bw photo books. If not I wonder
> why. 
> 
> It is my understanding that the machines they use are set up to be very
> automated and have limited flexibility.
> They all print color only, so when you send them B&W images those images get
> whatever slight color cast the machine is prone to produce.
> That's why intentionally "toning" your B&W images helps.
> 
> Good B&W reproduction requires duotones or tritones. The machines are
> incapable of this. Entirely different process.
> 
> I would be delighted to find out I am wrong.
> 
> 
> David Kachel
> 
> ___________________
> 
> Artist-Photographer
> Fine B&W Photographs
> 
> www.davidkachel.com
> david@...
> 
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> www.reddoorfinephotographs.com
> director@...
> 
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> (432) 386-5787
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