Re: Decrease L of Black in printer profile?
Re: Decrease L of Black in printer profile?
- Subject: Re: Decrease L of Black in printer profile?
- From: Powerbook G4 <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 09:56:09 -0500
Steve-
I have run into this same thing with some printer profiles I've been working on. If you look at the neutral curve of the profile , it'll show how your printer adds up 4C to make your neutral, from light to dark. A certain L value in, will result in a certain 4C build out, and hopefully the L value out will = the L value in. If you look at your existing
The neutral that is generated ought to be a straight line at 45 degrees and should continue until the printer has reached its maximum density (minimum L value out), at that point, decreasing input L will not get you any change in output, as the printer is 'maxed out'.
Check your 3D Gamut view- compared to something like SWOP coated. SWOP's gamut goes way down towards the low L values. Is the bottom of your gamut high above the axis- sort of like it has stunted growth?
Some print engines lose density when you add all 4C on top of each other- sometimes the densest black a printer can make is simply 100% K, with no other ink. Take a reading of your 100% K swatch and see what the L value is. If K only is nice and dark (L of 12 or whatever) then you have another way to approach this problem.
So.. how to accomplish this? Make a profile with ~100%-150%TAC.
When you create a profle, you can specify the black ink start, GCR level, and total ink, black width, etc. Usually the default settings will give you TAC of 250-320% for your densest areas, but sometimes that just doesn't work for a particular printer. Try making another profile with total ink @ 100, and a black ink limit of 100%. You'll see the c-m-y curves take a nosedive to zero in your shadow areas, and K will go up to 100%.
This will impact your ability to make rich blacks, because now anything in the low L values will be made out of almost all K. However, this may allow you to make darker shadows, and your prints will have more contrast. Also, too heavy K generation can result in flat, desaturated appearance in your prints, just another thing to watch.
YMMV, but give this a shot. It may take some experimentation, I'd say try this with varying levels of GCR, and also with total ink from 100-200%.
Look at the neutral curve afterwards, and look at your 3D gamut. Does the neutral curve keep climbing, so that L input of 10 and below will give you L out of 12 or whatever? Have you succeeded in expanding your 3D gamut downward into the low L values? Let me know what happens!
Hope this helps-
Randy Norian
On Sep 11, 2004, at 4:13 PM, Steven Kornreich wrote:
I am trying to get a denser black in my printer profile. Right now when I take a look at in Color Think, the Black is L23 I would like to get that down to like L13-14.
How would I go about doing this? I tried changing ucr/gcr levels but that did not make a difference. I assume it needs to be done in profile editor. But I am not sure how to do this.
Thanks everyone.
<x-tad-bigger>_______________________________________________________</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger>Kornreich Fine Art Prints</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger>Steven Kornreich</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger>email@hidden</x-tad-bigger>
<x-tad-bigger>http://www.kornreichprinting.com</x-tad-bigger>
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Randy Norian
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