curzon@tegenlicht.com
Date: 09/09/03-01:30:51 PM Z
Hello Nick,
Thanks for sharing. Seems like a good way to test.
Can you tell me what type of epson printer you used?
Thanks,
Bert from Holland
www.tegenlicht.com
-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: Nick Makris [mailto:nick@mcn.org]
Verzonden: dinsdag 9 september 2003 15:54
Aan: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Onderwerp: Getting a handle on printed output (resend)
Some of you may remember my goal to find a combination of printer, ink and
substrates that could be used to create both durable negs for PT/PD and high
quality archival B&W prints on watercolor paper. Kind of a lofty goal, but
one that I am on the verge of attaining.
It obviously boils down to the proper combination, but it's not so simple
finding your way through the fog of image editing workflow, image modes,
printer, ink, substrate, ICC profiles, color controls, media type selection,
actual paper selection, print quality, dot gain and on and on.
Yesterday, after printing what appeared to be the most perfect step wedge
of my 4 year search, I reflected on how the search process could have been
simplified - so here it is in the most simplistic form I'm able to put
together.
As I said in my earlier post it was the Media Type selection that through
me off and I now wonder what part that may have played in my early and
ongoing series of getting close but never getting the perfect print. It
turns out that, at least in each of the Epson printer properties/setup
dialogs, the Media Type and Print Quality have the most significant effect
on the printed output. Ironically, since the real world offers a vast array
of substrates, a specific media selection for any particular film or paper
is usually not available - so what do you choose for the task at hand?
Even more confounding - if there is a selection that seems to be
appropriate for the intended substrate, it may be the wrong one. This was
brought to light yesterday when I was researching the problem of non-linear
output in the most dense part of the steps. Turns out that printer X will
print the greatest amount of ink on with media Type A selected and printer Y
will put the least amount of ink with media Type A selected. With these
kinds of variables, you need to have a plan and not one plan but one plan
for each printer you may have.
Here's how to make the plan - start by finding out how much ink each Media
Type prints onto a substrate known to take a lot of ink and rank them from
greatest (most dense) amount to least amount. In this way you will know
which media type to choose for a given task/substrate. If you get
pooling/puddling or noticable dot gain on the selected substrate the plan
will be less useful.
For the purpose of this first test, choose a substrate (film is better for
this than paper) that will accept great amounts of ink without pooling. The
claylike coated films such as the Epson Backlight and Kodak Backlit will
take huge amounts of ink and so will some velums. It will be much easier to
determine the most dense ink setting based on a film or velum, rather than a
paper.
To make those determinations, simply make a series Photoshop image files
in grayscale that consist of a simple one inch square block - the left half
of which is100% black and the right half of which is 50% black. Make one
file for each of the media types that your printer driver displays and name
the file with that media type name. I know your saying why one for each???
Each file should have the block positioned so that you can successively pass
one piece of substrate through the printer and have all the images appear in
order without overlapping. Also, insert the text that suggests which media
setting is represented below the block in each file.
TAKE NOTES WHILE PRINTING THESE TESTS - make sure you recoginze the amount
of wet ink while it's still wet.
Driver settings:
Choose "No Color Adjustment".
Choose the appropriate Media Type.
If the Media Type allows it, choose 1440dpi or the highest it allows (more
than 1440 is a waste).
Choose "Color Ink".
Once you have ranked your Media Types it is a simple matter of introducing
a new substrate into your workflow. Take a piece of your new film or paper,
print the the files starting with the most dense media type as determined
above and stop printing them when you print one that doesn't pool/puddle or
if you're into dot gain, doesn't appear to have any. That's the starting
point for creating a curve and printing a step wedge for that substrate.
SIMPLE AS THAT :>)
Good luck,
Nick
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