Digital BW, The Print

Todd,

You wrote, in part:

>...
> I'd love for someone who has the
>piezo driver to make the comparison sometime.
>Take a file that posterizes
>through one workflow - any workflow - and then do the
>same file through the
>alternative workflow and see if it helps. ...

>My suspicion is that no one workflow
>will out work the other in all cases. I'd bet it's good to have two
>workflows available precisely in case you hit the wall
>with one, you'll have somewhere else to go.

>...

As you suspected, I have found that all the workflows have imperfections.
There are "lines" in the ramps of all of them -- Piezo included.  If you
hold a print of a smooth Photoshop ramp up close to a light so you can see
everything, you'll be very depressed.  We are far from perfection in this
process.  Whether a workflow works for a particular print probably relates
to whether there is a "line" or flat spot at a critical point in the ramp
for that particular shot.

See, for example my "Ramp-smoothness.jpg" in the "Image Processing" folder
of the Files section of this forum. Go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/files/
Then follow the link to Image Processing.

What I did is run a Photoshop gradient at 50% in the opposite direction of
the ramp in the printed test file.  The two should cancel each other out
entirely -- except for the imperfections.  I then raised the contrast of the
images to accentuate the imperfections.  The bottom halves of the images did
not have the 50% ramp run across it.  So, you can see how much I raised the
contrast.

At any rate, you can see the "lines" I mentioned clearly. (There are two
that are scanner defects -- one at 100% and one at 90%.)  My point in the
exercise is not to say one driver is better than the other, but to show that
both are far from perfect.

So, I subscribe to your solution entirely -- multiple workflows.  With the
quads -- 1160 and 3000 -- Piezo and Epson workflows are easy with the same
FS/Piezo compatible inksets.  With the vm inksets multiple curves can be
helpful.

Paul
http://www.PaulRoark.com