Epson ABW Mode

[ianbarber]

<p><strong>Printer used: Epson R2880</strong><br>

The majority of my black and white conversion happens in Silver Efex Pro.<br>

I have started to add a light Coffee Tone to my images in SEP which to me look quite nice. The tone settings are <strong>Coffee (13 and remove the paper tone slider to 0%)<br /> </strong><br>

I appreciate that when I push this image out to the printer via the ABW mode, the Tone I applied in SEP will not be honoured and i have the ability to use the colour wheel in the ABW driver to add a tone.<br>

My issue..... I have a red/green colour deficiency which is making it virtually impossible for me to reproduce the tone I like with the colour wheel.<br>

<br />Can anyone suggest how I could reproduce this either with numbers or any advice really.<br>

I am trying to build a seamless workflow where the toned prints I will be putting on the net represents what comes out of the printer, based on been viewed on a good calibrated monitor in the first instance of course.</p>

<p>Ian </p>

<hr>

<i>Mod note: Moved from B&W Photo - Printing & Finishing forum</i>

[eric friedemann]

<p>When I make a toned B&W print on my Epson 3880, I print it as an RGB image, not in ABW mode.</p>

[ianbarber]

<p>Thanks for the reply Eric<br>

I know that printing as an RGB image is an option but I was lead to believe that using the ABW driver produces better results at it is mixes the black inks better. Complex subject but I may be wrong<br>

ian</p>

[digitaldog]

<p>ABW is a black box. You let it convert the data to it’s proprietary B&W and ink usage (not all inks are used). You can’t use a third party method to convert and then use ABW. IF you must use such a third party process, you have to print using an ICC profile and forget ABW. The downside to ABW is no soft proofing, no control over the process other than using the sliders in the driver as you view Greg Gorman’s image. The upside is very neutral prints if so desired, less ink use, longer archived print.</p>

[ianbarber]

<p>If I have understood you correctly, if I was to do the black and white conversion of my image in Nik Silver Efex Pro, I would have to print the image as i would a colour image assigning it an ICC profile for the paper I am printing on.<br>

What is the recommended workflow for using the ABW mode if it is just a Black Box</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>color toned image (sepia, cyanotype, platinum, brownish colodion etc..) have to be print like any other color. If you are not after neutral BW, then you use the color mode way of printing.</p>

<p>If you want dead neutral BW, you dont need a profile to be selected in Photoshop, Lightroom or else,.. simply let the printer determine color, then use the ABW to print on any kind of inkjet paper. Profile are not needed 99% of the time for that. I leave all the default option except that i like to put 3 and 3 in the white box beside the color wheel.. i find it give a even more neutral BW (i find the epson one on the colder side).</p>

<p>If you want you can apply a sepia, colr, warm tone to your image at that stage.. for some, its easier and better to let epson do it at that stage.</p>

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>If I have understood you correctly, if I was to do the black and white conversion of my image in Nik Silver Efex Pro, I would have to print the image as i would a colour image assigning it an ICC profile for the paper I am printing on.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Correct. </p>

 

 

<blockquote>

<p>What is the recommended workflow for using the ABW mode if it is just a Black Box</p>

</blockquote>

 

 

<p>The same as if you were using any other color to B&W technique expect it does it for you with less control overall (you have a few sliders, you can’t view your image etc). But the output is significantly different: less inks used, far less metameric failure, prints are more lightfast). </p>

[alan_goldhammer]

<p>One correction to Andrew's post above. If you are using a Win computer, you can use ABW profiles for softproofing since Windows does not lock out the use of profiles as does the new MacOS. Eric Chan used to prepare ABW profiles but is no longer because of the lack of Mac support (though not all of us are MacAholics). You can prepare your own ABW profiles using Roy Harrington's QTR. You will see some improvement in your ABW prints as the Epson print driver is not completely linear which is what the profile corrects for. The big difference between an ABW print and a color managed B/W print is that you get a deeper Dmax (hence an extended gray scale range) with ABW. If you really are happy with your toning process by all means use the color managed process as it will really be difficult to replicate that tone using the Epson color wheel.</p>

[ianbarber]

<p>Can I add another question to this topic.<br /> I'm using a Mac (lion) and when I enter the ABW driver, I am only seeing a small selection of paper profiles listed although i know I have more than that in my profile folder.<br /> I am little confused as to what media type to select, I am wanting to print on Hahnemuhle Baryta paper.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.ianbarberphotography.co.uk/slush/mediatypes.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p> </p>

[emil_ems5]

<p>Andrew and Patrick,<br>

How can you see on the screen what you get on paper, if there is no proofing profile for ABW printing? From experience I know that I always have to make adjustments to account for the difference between the two forms of illumination (transmission vs reflection). Is there no way of proofing for that in ABW?</p>

[alan_goldhammer]

<p>@Emil, see my post immediately above. You cannot proof for ABW printing on the new MacOS as it will not let you send a profile to the printer driver. The feature is only available on Windows machines (but even there the question is for how much longer). </p>

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>How can you see on the screen what you get on paper, if there is no proofing profile for ABW printing? </p>

</blockquote>

<p>You can’t. As I said, it is a black box process. </p>

<p>There was a ‘<em>work around</em>’ by Eric Chan of Adobe, I have no idea if it was effective or not but this was not something Epson designed into the process and as pointed out, it no longer works with newer Mac OS. Eric didn’t provide such soft proof profiles for all papers and I suspect he never will. </p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>i never softproof anything, color or bw *</p>

<p>I have a calibrated monitor, and a color managed workflow. I know my epson 7780 printer, and use mainly 3 paper with it. What i see is always what i get printed. I reduce my monitor luminosity to 110 to be a little more dark on screen, and before printing i apply a little curve that remove 3% of density on the print.. result? perfect match when i look at my print under a good daylight balanced light. My black are black with details, i can see all the subtle gradation (i have a NEC 2690) and love the setup.</p>

<p>Why dont i never soft proof? because it just work for me. When i print on my epson or (on occasion) in a lab, my print match. But for me, all have to match commercial CMYK printer, and it does. I mean, when i ask for color proof made by different commercial printer it match really closely what i can print (sometime a little less vibrant) and what i see on my monitor (sometime a little more dark but nothing to become crazy). I developed my file in Lightroom, do all i can there and export the result as in a sRGB color space, that way i know that all i see can be commercially print (or really close enough, some blue, orange and deep purple have a hard time to be print on a CMYK device). Years ago i was fighting the concept of working in sRGB, like many nothing else exist other than Pro Photo 16bits, and reazile that the ideal color space was far from ideal in the real life of client approbation vs CMYK final print... so by reducing this gap (using sRGB after all the color correction and process have been done in Pro Photo) everything is perfect for the past 8 years or so.</p>

<p>* i only soft proof in CMYK with a profile that the printer give me base on the current job im doing.</p>

[ianbarber]

<p>Patrick Lavoie:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>i apply a little curve that remove 3% of density on the print.. result? </p>

</blockquote>

<p>I like the idea of this, how difficult was it to make this curve.<br>

Ian</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>easy ; )</p>

<p>PHOTOSHOP<br>

1_create a adjustment layer curve<br>

2_make sure the curve is set to INK (go to the preference on the curve, a little arrow top right in the curve panel), curve display option, set your curve from Light to INK.<br>

3_then, on the curve itself, click anywhere close the center<br>

4_under the curve X Y display, there 2 empty white box, INPUT 50, OUTPUT 45.</p>

<p>That will remove around 3% of ink all over your print...all epson *suffer* from this.. from the original epson 3000 (15years ago) to the newer 7880 / 7900..</p>

<p>LIGHTROOM 3 (that change in Lightroom 4, there a button for this exact purpose)<br>

1_before printing, go to Library<br>

2_Quick Develop panel<br>

3_click 1 time on the right double arrow, FILL LIGHT<br>

4_print as usual<br>

5_dont forget to reset the setting after the print is done.</p>