Re: Inkjet negatives and Van Dyke Brownprints

Joe,

The actual UV transmitted density of the Epson 2200 neutral black ink
is much greater than 2.26 at 100% ink. It is in fact over log 3.5,
much higher than the ES of VDB (about 2.25 ideally). This is the
reason you must make the very drastic changes in the curve in the
areas of maximum density. The key would be to blend black with
another color so that 100% density would match the ES of VDB. There
was some discussion on this issue at one of the threads on
www.apug.org. You might be interested in the general comments in
following thread on this subject,
http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9726&page=2&pp=10
and specifically in a message by David Harris near the end of the
thread which suggests a method to blend colors to match printer
density to process ES.

Mark's PDN system normally matches printer density and process
density with the color palette stage, but unfortunately none of the
colors available with the color palette print with enough density on
the Epson 2200 for VDB. You will not have this particular problem
with some of the other Epson printers, including the 1280 and those
that use DuraBrite pigmented ink sets.

Sandy

>
>Yes. The curve is applied to the inverted (i.e., negative image) file.
>
>My Epson 2200 printer really causes a huge increase in density in the
>final 3% K ink values. Uncorrected, at 97% ink the transmission density
>is 1.45, 1.82 @ 98%, 1.99 @ 99%, and 2.26 @100% ink. So, it gains
>almost three stops density in the last 4%. (That is similar to the
>entire density increase from 0% to 90% !) I've really had to raise that
>end of the curve to get separation in the very lightest highlight values
>of the print.
>
Received on Sat Nov 20 10:15:56 2004