printing in b&w

stumac

stumac

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stuart
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I have just started printing myself and was just wondering....i have some b&w i want to print,would it be wise of me to tick the grey scale box in my printer menu settings or will it not make a difference.if it matters i have a canon ip4700 printer

thanks in advance
 
you'll probably get a cast since you only have one black cart when using colour. if you use black only you'll probably not get the tone of the original image.

if you want a profile done let me know as it can really help.
 
As POAH says with one black it could be a bit of a challenge. However nothing ventured.....

So make a trial print and see what you get. Yes I'd select grey scale printing, and see how well or bad it prints. Now you may find the shadows get a bit blocky, but if you may be able to open these out in your PP software.

Also I'd convert the images to B&W in software first rather than leave it to the printer to convert. This way you have some control over the final result. You don't say what software you have but both Photoshop and Lightroom have some good monochrome controls. Can't say about elements as I've not used it.

You might also want to try printing the B&W with some effects, like sepia or cyanotype. to give some variation . In this case you'll need to un tick the greyscale option.
 
Is there a recommended work-flow to optimise B&W photos for printing? I'm wondering whether I can squeeze a very contrasty image onto paper without loosing too much of the captured dynamic range.
 
Cistron said:
Is there a recommended work-flow to optimise B&W photos for printing? I'm wondering whether I can squeeze a very contrasty image onto paper without loosing too much of the captured dynamic range.
Click to expand...

How you print B&W will depend on your software and printer. One of the difficulties is ensuring what you see on the screen is printed accurately, especially the shadows and the highlights. Using a correctly profiles system can help, but also knowing at what point the highlights blow out and the shadows will block up is useful.

For example if you have a highlight with a value of say 240 ( R,G,B) will this print as a density or will the printing system simply show this as white. Same happens with shadows, at what point do you start to see differentiation in tones at the shadow end. So if you printer effectively prints everything a black with no differentiation from say 0-20, there is no point in trying to hold detail in the image that has a value of 10.


I normally print B&W out of Lightroom which uses percentages rather than 0-255 values. I find that I can hold highlight detail up to about 95% after that it gets problematical. Shadows anything lower than 10% are really too solid to show detail usually. This is on a profiled Epson 2880. Other printers it may be different. Relating these numbers back to a convention 0-255 system I would guess that the highlights are constrained to about 245-240 with the shadows to around 25, but that's just a guess.

Really the only way to see if the image can be printed satisfactorily is to try it and see, and make an assessment as a result of the test. But as a guide keep the highlights to below 235 and the shadows above 30
 
Chappers said:
How you print B&W will depend on your software and printer. One of the difficulties is ensuring what you see on the screen is printed accurately, especially the shadows and the highlights. Using a correctly profiles system can help, but also knowing at what point the highlights blow out and the shadows will block up is useful.

For example if you have a highlight with a value of say 240 ( R,G,B) will this print as a density or will the printing system simply show this as white. Same happens with shadows, at what point do you start to see differentiation in tones at the shadow end. So if you printer effectively prints everything a black with no differentiation from say 0-20, there is no point in trying to hold detail in the image that has a value of 10.


I normally print B&W out of Lightroom which uses percentages rather than 0-255 values. I find that I can hold highlight detail up to about 95% after that it gets problematical. Shadows anything lower than 10% are really too solid to show detail usually. This is on a profiled Epson 2880. Other printers it may be different. Relating these numbers back to a convention 0-255 system I would guess that the highlights are constrained to about 245-240 with the shadows to around 25, but that's just a guess.

Really the only way to see if the image can be printed satisfactorily is to try it and see, and make an assessment as a result of the test. But as a guide keep the highlights to below 235 and the shadows above 30
Click to expand...
Thank you, very comprehensive. I actually don't have a printer, nor do I intend to buy one, but I assume it won't be much different with commercial labs.
 
Good thing about the ip4700 is the two different black tonal cartridges, that's got to help b+w printing over a normal printer with one black cartridge.
 
Graham00 said:
Good thing about the ip4700 is the two different black tonal cartridges, that's got to help b+w printing over a normal printer with one black cartridge.
Click to expand...

I thought the pigment black was used purely for document printing ?
 
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