Re: Black Generation Question
Re: Black Generation Question
- Subject: Re: Black Generation Question
- From: Chris Halford <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 03 Feb 2001 09:14:44 -0600
on 2/3/01 8:27 AM, Glenn Kowalski at email@hidden wrote:
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I understand the principle on black generation, although I'm still a
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little fuzzy about when to use which settings (light, medium, heavy).
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Obviously, the best thing to do is talk to the print vendor and find
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out what is the most appropriate.
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But when the press is unknown, or
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there is no reliable source of information I just go medium when
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creating a printer profile.
You are not alone here. Black generation stands to vastly improve quality,
or completely destroy it. You are correct to select medium if you have no
further instruction, but there is a good chance that your print vendor won't
know either. Your best bet is to talk to a scanner operator at the plant
where your job will be printing.
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In the case of the job I've been working on creating a profile for a
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Kodak DCP 9500 proofer to simulate the client's Dupont Waterproof, I
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got good results (better than the Kodak guy according to the client),
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although the Dupont gives deeper blacks. I'm not sure what the best
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way is to compensate for that in the Kodak DCP 9000 profile--edit the
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profile and increase the black channel curve, or create the profile
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with heavy black generation.
Sounds like the profile may not be accurate. Technically, altering black
generation shouldn't affect the deepness of the black, it should just
reformulate it with a different 'blend'. Of course the entire reason that
black generation exists is so that you don't get brown rather than black.
Playing with the black generation may help to give you the desired affect,
but from my experience, you should go to a heavy and not maximum k-gen if
you believe that it will move you to the desired result.
If you can tweak the black curve, you may also be able to correct your
problem, although I personally don't believe in editing profiles; maybe
reprofile or make sure the same printing settings are being uses as when you
profiled in the first place.
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I guess the bottom line question is, how does black generation
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visually affect the print? I would think that increasing it would
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give deeper, more solid looking blacks, but not having time to
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experiment, I'm only speculating.
Technically you should get the same results unless you use no black
generation, in which case you will get brown. On most devices (that I've
worked with ) introduction of even a little K the a 3-c black is all that is
really needed. For the most part, black generation is to lower the amount of
total ink that is printing, and to help control neutral balance. If you
reprofile using different amounts of black generation and you are seeing a
visual distinction in the output, then my suggestion is that the profiling
package may not be applying it correctly.
Well that's my 2 cents anyway.
--
Chris Halford
C.T.O.
www.iccTools.com
mobile email: email@hidden
*Short messages*
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