Digital BW, The Print

>    From: Frank Kolwicz <kolwicz@...> wrote:
>
> It may sound or be impractical, but I've done this most effectively by 
> printing in two passes, one for B&W and one for color. I've even done 
> it with registration on two different printers, but that was a lot of 
> work and I found that for my purposes it was unnecessary.
>
> Separating the image allows control over the B&W that I think can get 
> seriously blunted if done in a single operation, either by Photoshop's 
> handling of the combined data or the printer driver.
>

Perhaps I'm not understanding the premise here, but I've done it two 
ways since inkjet printers were invented, and for many years before 
that in the darkroom
with masking and pin registration for multiple exposures on 8X10 and 
11X14 Ektachrome duping film. Now believe me,  that was difficult!

As Frank has written, I too have done multiple passes on the inkjet 
printer (2200) and the main problem was registration. However, unless 
you want to use
a black inkset for one pass, and color inkset for the second, IMHO,  
there isn't a great need to even mess with  registration at all.

Most of my commercial work for 20 + years and some of my fine art work 
are photo collage. As a result I've often combined color and B&W, in 
one photo shop
file, with multiple layers. Usually the base image is gray scale, and 
some elements are color. So I'll maximize the gray scale image to print 
neutral as an RGB
file. Then I'll add the color elements as separate layers, and test 
print until the colors are exactly what I'm looking for, without 
touching any of the curves regulating the B&W portion. If you have good 
calibration, this is not too difficult to accomplish. When it all looks 
good, I'll flatten the file, which usually is for 30X40, and print 
smaller test sections of it on the 2200. When  correct, I send out for 
large prints on a 9600, and they usually work out even better, because 
of the superior paper transport on that machine.  I've not tried this 
with my 2400, with large prints on the 9800 yet, but I expect the 
results will be even better. Warning:  the files
get very large - sometimes over 3 Gb, so this is a very slow process!

Clay Price