Digital BW, The Print

Hi Paul,

Normally, I'd say let's discuss off-line. Email me and also always feel free to call me. However, for others reading this thread and who may be interested in how this sample submission process works:

The goal of the AaI&A documentation forms is to help me write up the "Description" and "comments/notes" pages in each test report in such a way that other printmakers looking at it will understand how the print was made and ideally could replicate the whole setup if they wanted to.  When we are talking about the standard printer drivers supplied by the printer manufacturer, the documentation is relatively straight-forward, and I developed the form more or less with those drivers in mind.  However, when submitting members start to move into more "exotic" or less conventional workflows like specialized RIPs, third party inks custom blended, special coatings, etc., some of the items on the form may then become not applicable (e.g., profiles and rendering intents), and the actual steps used to make the print much harder to describe. The documentation process then gets much more challenging when this happens, not only for the submitting member but for me to translate into the report as well. 

So the main advice I can give to any members submitting test samples is this: The AaI&A documentation pages are a guide to the kind of information I need, but i"m happy to work with you in any way you'd like to submit the supporting documentation. Screenshots of your print menus are most helpful, and when i get them you will usually see them placed into the reports as well. You can email them or send a CD with the samples, whatever is easiest for you.  Also, any comments you'd like to share, etc. Anything to help someone who's not using your setup figure out what is needed to reproduce your results. A good example is in the MIS Eboni 3MK test report. I was provided with a URL to the Shutterbug Magazine article about the process by the submitting member (you can probably guess who that was). I hyperlinked it in the report.  That type of supplemental information is highly instructive and will help to make the test results and the Aardenburg Archives a richer resource for photo historians in the future as well. 

I also openly and shamelessly request pictorial examples of the process, signed or unsigned by the artist, but sending me pictorial prints made the same way as the test samples is entirely optional, definitely not mandatory. The donated prints are becoming the core of a growing archive of 21st century digital printing processes.



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "paulmwhiting" <paulmwhiting@...> wrote:
>
> 
> 
> Hello again, Mark,
> 
> Glad to see the high activity in this thread, looks like we're all on to something very important.
> 
> You'll recall you invited me to submit some test prints using the R1800/PremierArt Fine Art paper/MIS Eboni ink combination. I've made the prints and am now looking at your pdf form to fill out. I do have a couple of technical questions... is it more appropriate I e-mail with you at your site, phone in my questions Monday, or take them up here, where others might benefit?. The questions have to with 1) the imbedded Gray Gamma 2.2 layer imbedded in your test prints and 2) the ICC profile section of your form... my process uses .quad files, which are generated by QTRIP from .qidf files on Paul Roark's website.
> 
> Guess I've already half-asked them!
> 
> Paul
>