Digital BW, The Print

A big thank-you to everyone who replied to my queries about Black-
Only printing on an Espon 1280.  I use Picture Window Pro, which 
doesn't do dot gain.  So I couldn't use Clayton's workflow.  But it 
jogged my memory.  I recalled that Paul Roark had created a  
grayscale curve for the Epson 1290 VM inkset.  It's in the files 
section of this group here:

Files, Ink Sets, MIS, MIX Variable Mix.  It's the last item:
Paul Roark's 1290 Curves for VM and Sepia VM.ZIP  The curve for BO 
printing is the one with "gs" in the name.

This 1290 curve works beautifully for BO on my 1280 (they are 
essentially the same printer).  With images that had a lot of tonal 
adjustment, I found that it was sometimes best to apply the curve 
with the file still at 16 bits/pixel, and to do final sharpening 
afterward as well.

For Picture Window (Pro) users:  You have to convert your image file 
to RGB before PWP will load the curve file.  To avoid this, I 
converted the Photoshop ACV file to a PWP grayscale .CRV file.  If 
anyone is interested and Paul has no objection, I can post the curve 
here (someone please tell me how).  

My Epson 1280 driver settings are: 

Ink:         Black
Media Type:  Epson Photo paper (to print at 2280 dpi)
             Epson Matte Heavyweight (to print at 1440 dpi)

Speed:       1440 or 2880 dpi
Gamma:       2.2
Bright:      0
Contrast:    0

(Manuel:  My driver only has gamma options for 1.5, 1.8 and 2.2.  
There is no 1.0 setting)

Print quality is beautiful.  Nice deep blacks and luminous 
highlights.  2880 dpi is a bit smoother than 1440.  I prefer 2880 
when there are small human faces in the print, because the eye tends 
to see the dots at 1440 as it tries to make out facial features. That 
said, you only notice the dots if you look hard.  My wife actually 
preferred the BO print when I showed her a 1440 BO print side-by-side 
with a hextone of the same image:
http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/italy/MadonChildChant.htm

On the other hand, this picture looked better in hextone:
http://www2.2alpha.com/~pklein/italy/siblingrival_bw.htm
2880 dpi BO was almost as good as hextone, but the little girl's face 
was a bit rough-looking at 1440 dpi BO.

--Peter Klein
Seattle, WA

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Manuel Toledo 
Quinones" <mtoledo@e...> wrote:
> For BO using Picture Windows, I use the following settings in the
> Epson drive:
> 
> Media type: photo paper
> Print Quality: SuperPhoto at 2880
> Color Controls set
> Gamma: 1.0
> Brightness: +2
> Contrast:0 
> 
> For many images, with this settings I get reasonable agreement 
between
> print and monitor.
> 
> Have fun!
> 
> Manuel
> 
> 
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Peter A. 
Klein"
> <pklein@2...> wrote:
> > Thanks, Bob and Clayton.  When you both mentioned dot gain, I 
> > thought, "Wait a minute, I'm using Picture Window Pro, not 
Photoshop, 
> > and it doesn't do dot gain."  Then I realized that Paul Roarke 
had 
> > included a grayscale printing curve with some of his inksets. 
Hmm, I 
> > thought, maybe that does what the dot gain profiles do.
> > 
> > I had one from the Epson 1290 VM set, so I ran a grayscale image 
> > through it, and things got a lot lighter on the screen.  It just 
> > finished printing as I write this, and things are looking a whole 
lot 
> > better.
> > 
> > Thanks for jogging my memory in the right direction!
> > 
> > --Peter
> > 
> > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton 
Jones" 
> > <cj@c...> wrote:
> > > Hello Peter,
> > > 
> > > >Does anyone have some ballpark settings of the Epson 1280 
driver 
> > for 
> > > >BO (black only) printing.  
> > > >I had beautiful prints with MIS VM.  Right now with BO I've 
got a 
> > > >nice looking gray scale when I print a step wedge, but things 
in 
> > the 
> > > >mid-high range (like flesh tones) are printing a "zone" or 
more 
> > too 
> > > >dark.  
> > > 
> > > > Also, do I need to mess with color space settings in Picture 
> > Window 
> > > > Pro?  I don't use color management, but I've got the working 
> > space 
> > > > set at Adobe RGB 1998 as per the hextone workflow.
> > > 
> > > Several things going on here, probably the work space/printer 
> > profile
> > > settings are what's doing it.  To have full control in BO 
printing
> > > I've found it's best to keep the image in Grayscale.  This 
limits 
> > the
> > > work space setings (the "front end" profile) to the Dot 
Gain/Gray
> > > Gamma choices.  
> > > 
> > > Briefly, you set the printer profile (the "back end" profile) 
> > to "Same
> > > As Source".   This ensures that whatever front end profile you 
> > choose
> > > doesn't affect the print.  Then you set the front end profile to
> > > whatever setting makes the monitor image best match the print 
> > (trying
> > > for good WYSIWYG).  If you aren't sure which to use, I 
recommend Dot
> > > Gain 20% as a good starting point because it's in the middle of 
the
> > > range of the available settings.  Once that is established, if 
you 
> > are
> > > unhappy with the print you make changes to the image.
> > > 
> > > If this all sounds confusing, it is explained in much better 
detail 
> > in
> > > article #4 on the web site link below.
> > > 
> > > Regards,
> > > Clayton
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Info on black and white digital printing at    
> > > http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm