Printing - Black and White in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop Lightroom - page 255

Materials used for digital print making and traditional photography are
independently tested by Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc., a company
considered the authority on the testing of image permanence. For comparison,
Wilhelm reports on the number of years that display prints under framed glass
will last until noticeable fading occurs. Traditional Chromogenic color prints
such as the Fuji Crystal Archive paper, considered the most stable traditional
silver halide color print, are rated at 60 years, Ilford Cibachrome are rated at
29 years and the Kodak Ektacolor at 22 years. For more extensive information
on longevity visit Henry Wilhelm online at www.wilhelm-research.com.
Two alternatives of note have developed to overcome some of the black and
white limitations to the inkjet approach.
Alternatives to Black and White Inkjet Limitations
Black only printing
One of the i rst solutions that comes to most people's minds in resolving the
color bias issue is to turn of the color ink altogether and print with black
ink only. Choosing the black ink only option in the printer driver options is
certainly an easy solution to eliminating unwanted color casts. If made from
a newer high-end printer, this approach will result in a fairly decent inkjet
print and produce more of a grainy looking result with an older lower-end
printer. This process is quick and easy and good enough for many users. Black
only printing is a reliable, inexpensive and easy way to get started making
beautiful prints with the highest possible archival longevity (using only a
pure carbon black ink). It allows you to get started with the least expense and
without committing to a particular system or software while you hone your
skills and experiment with dif erent papers. For the i ne art printer, however,
striving for better results, what we sacrii ce for neutrality is dot structure. All
the other colors in the CMYK or CMYKLBLMLC ink sets, in addition to the
black, make the dot structure and tonal range of the print dramatically
smoother, as there are exceptionally more droplets of ink hitting the printed
surface. Using only black ink will be notably less rich in tonality and density
by comparison.
RIP software (Raster Image Processing)
A RIP is really just software that replaces the printer driver that comes with
your printer. It controls how ink l ows to the print heads in a dif erent way
than the standard drivers, and gives the user more control over the tone and
density of a print. The better quality RIPs produce beautiful results and of er
a broad range of tones from neutral to sepia. Some RIPs are even capable of
working with grayscale ink sets, allowing the photographer an even greater
amount of control in the print making process. Sounds fabulous right? Before
you get too excited, there are a few downfalls to note in the RIP process.
First, RIPs are heavily technical, requiring the use of curves and proi les to
control the inks. For the technically savvy, this is an approach well worth
exploring; for the technically challenged, however, RIPs can be dii cult to