Optimising B&W print - grey scale linearisation - which software to apply corrections

[MikaelWeber]

I am a newbie to printing and this is my first post on DPReview.

I recently decided to try printing my photos and based on Keith Cooper‘s excellent videos and articles as well as prevailingly positive comments in this forum I bought an Epson ET-8550.

I also started reading and learning about all aspects of colour management (incl. ICC profiles), importance of printing out (and evaluating!) reference test images, about different ink technologies, papers, but also about the nitty-gritty of the software settings (printer drivers, Lightroom, Epson Print Layout, etc.).

The learning curve was steep but so far my experimentation journey was nothing but joy!

However, on my ongoing journey to learn how to get the most out of this printer (or any other printer I may use in the future) I am now stuck on one technicality and was wondering if anybody here can give me any guidance.

• I mostly print B&W, on matt papers (e.g. Epson Velvet Fine Art, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Matt Baryta).
• I use a Mac computer and do all the editing in Lightroom Classic and NIK Collection.
• For printing, I export the final image to Epson Print Layout (EPL) and print in the Advanced B&W mode (ABW). I use EPL instead of Lightroom Print Module mostly because of the user-friendliness of its user interface.
• Importantly, so far I have no need for Photoshop or Affinity Photo or similar.
• I would now like to learn if I can in any way optimise and refine my B&W prints by linearising the spread of grey values between the white and black extremes.

I am planning to follow Keith Cooper‘s guidance leveraging Spyder Print to measure 21 grey scale patches and then using QuadToneRIP (QTR) shareware to generate a B&W QTR profile based on these measurements.

My understanding is that I cannot apply this QTR profile in Lightroom, and that I would need either Photoshop or Affinity Photo.

As I would really like to avoid Photoshop licensing costs (or even a one-off purchase of Affinity Photo) just for this single final step before printing, is there any workaround?

I also looked at the alternative of scanner-based B&W linearisation, but also there the road block seems to be Lightroom, in this case its lack of level adjustment curves, compared to Photoshop or Affinity Photo.

I hope my newbie question makes sense. Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

Mike

 

[Gesture]

• For printing, I export the final image to Epson Print Layout (EPL) and print in the Advanced B&W mode (ABW). I use EPL instead of Lightroom Print Module mostly because of the user-friendliness of its user interface.
• Importantly, so far I have no need for Photoshop or Affinity Photo or similar.

Great question. Maybe, Keith has covered it.

Epson's Advanced B&W mode uses the printer driver, not ICC profiles. Also, since the display is a not a live preview, I have always found it less than useful. I really think it dates from when the basic pigment ink printer didn't use as many gray tones and couldn't achieve as good a neutral tonality as current ink sets, Canon and Epson.

I personally would start by creating ICC profiles that are optimized for B&W. All profiling systems have printouts designed to optimize B&W tonality, as far as I know. Keith has a number of B&W test strips.

I think the greater challenge is creating a final image for printing that does have rich tonal separations/interpretations.

Good luck. Interested in the comments.

 

[ken5678]

Quad Tone Rip is a beast.



To better understand what you are doing, are you looking for a once and done, or for adjusting every photo based on its specific needs.

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but I would suggest going into soft proof mode in LRC and creating several masks for different luminosity ranges and making curve adjustments to get your photo where you want. Then printing using ABW.



EPL is a good program to print from, but so is LRC. And for someone even considering QTR, LRC is a piece of cake.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

Optimising B&W print - grey scale linearisation - which software to apply corrections

I am a newbie to printing and this is my first post on DPReview.

I recently decided to try printing my photos and ... I bought an Epson ET-8550.

I also started reading and learning about all aspects of colour management (incl. ICC profiles), importance of printing out (and evaluating!) reference test images, about different ink technologies, papers, but also about the nitty-gritty of the software settings (printer drivers, Lightroom, Epson Print Layout, etc.).

The learning curve was steep but so far my experimentation journey was nothing but joy!

However, on my ongoing journey to learn how to get the most out of this printer (or any other printer I may use in the future) I am now stuck on one technicality and was wondering if anybody here can give me any guidance.

• I mostly print B&W, on matt papers (e.g. Epson Velvet Fine Art, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Matt Baryta).
• I use a Mac computer and do all the editing in Lightroom Classic and NIK Collection.
• For printing, I export the final image to Epson Print Layout (EPL) and print in the Advanced B&W mode (ABW). I use EPL instead of Lightroom Print Module mostly because of the user-friendliness of its user interface.
• Importantly, so far I have no need for Photoshop or Affinity Photo or similar.
• I would now like to learn if I can in any way optimise and refine my B&W prints by linearising the spread of grey values between the white and black extremes.

I am planning to follow Keith Cooper‘s guidance leveraging Spyder Print to measure 21 grey scale patches and then using QuadToneRIP (QTR) shareware to generate a B&W QTR profile based on these measurements.

My understanding is that I cannot apply this QTR profile in Lightroom, and that I would need either Photoshop or Affinity Photo.

As I would really like to avoid Photoshop licensing costs (or even a one-off purchase of Affinity Photo) just for this single final step before printing, is there any workaround?

I also looked at the alternative of scanner-based B&W linearisation, but also there the road block seems to be Lightroom, in this case its lack of level adjustment curves, compared to Photoshop or Affinity Photo.

I hope my newbie question makes sense. Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

I think you're making it quite complex, especially for someone new at it. IMO there two sensible ways to go with your ET-8550:

(1) accept that Epson Advanced Black & White mode is a bit of a 'black box' but many people like it nevertheless, so if you can get with it results you're happy with, then great.

(2) An inexpensive alternative that would allow you e.g. full soft-proofing in Lightroom Classic is to build your own dedicated B&W ICC printing profiles, either with a used X-Rite ColorMunki Photo (about $175) or a new Calibrite ColorChecker Studio ($569). I use the former. The X-Rite i1Studio software, and I assume the Calibrite software, has an option to make specialized B&W printing profiles. It actually uses more printed profiling targets (50 + 100 = 150) than it uses to build regular color printing profiles (50 + 50 = 100). I find it works pretty well.

Also, notice I said "with your ET-8550". It may prove an insurmountable limiting factor for B&W prints. Many people find that any dye-ink printer, such as your ET-8550 or my old Epson R280, is not a great choice for B&W prints. The reason is that dye inks are susceptible to showing different tints under different lighting in a way that pigment inks are not. I am relatively picky, and IMO / IME, careful practices can produce B&W dye-ink prints that look reasonably neutral most of the time, but probably can't totally avoid the problem. If you're really that into producing the best B&W prints, then arguably a pigment-ink photo printer is a better choice. The least-expensive current ones of those are the Epson P700 and the Canon Pro-310.

 

[ken5678]

Optimising B&W print - grey scale linearisation - which software to apply corrections

I am a newbie to printing and this is my first post on DPReview.

I recently decided to try printing my photos and ... I bought an Epson ET-8550.

I also started reading and learning about all aspects of colour management (incl. ICC profiles), importance of printing out (and evaluating!) reference test images, about different ink technologies, papers, but also about the nitty-gritty of the software settings (printer drivers, Lightroom, Epson Print Layout, etc.).

The learning curve was steep but so far my experimentation journey was nothing but joy!

However, on my ongoing journey to learn how to get the most out of this printer (or any other printer I may use in the future) I am now stuck on one technicality and was wondering if anybody here can give me any guidance.

• I mostly print B&W, on matt papers (e.g. Epson Velvet Fine Art, Hahnemühle Photo Rag Matt Baryta).
• I use a Mac computer and do all the editing in Lightroom Classic and NIK Collection.
• For printing, I export the final image to Epson Print Layout (EPL) and print in the Advanced B&W mode (ABW). I use EPL instead of Lightroom Print Module mostly because of the user-friendliness of its user interface.
• Importantly, so far I have no need for Photoshop or Affinity Photo or similar.
• I would now like to learn if I can in any way optimise and refine my B&W prints by linearising the spread of grey values between the white and black extremes.

I am planning to follow Keith Cooper‘s guidance leveraging Spyder Print to measure 21 grey scale patches and then using QuadToneRIP (QTR) shareware to generate a B&W QTR profile based on these measurements.

My understanding is that I cannot apply this QTR profile in Lightroom, and that I would need either Photoshop or Affinity Photo.

As I would really like to avoid Photoshop licensing costs (or even a one-off purchase of Affinity Photo) just for this single final step before printing, is there any workaround?

I also looked at the alternative of scanner-based B&W linearisation, but also there the road block seems to be Lightroom, in this case its lack of level adjustment curves, compared to Photoshop or Affinity Photo.

I hope my newbie question makes sense. Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

I think you're making it quite complex, especially for someone new at it. IMO there two sensible ways to go with your ET-8550:

(1) accept that Epson Advanced Black & White mode is a bit of a 'black box' but many people like it nevertheless, so if you can get with it results you're happy with, then great.

(2) An inexpensive alternative that would allow you e.g. full soft-proofing in Lightroom Classic is to build your own dedicated B&W ICC printing profiles, either with a used X-Rite ColorMunki Photo (about $175) or a new Calibrite ColorChecker Studio ($569). I use the former. The X-Rite i1Studio software, and I assume the Calibrite software, has an option to make specialized B&W printing profiles. It actually uses more printed profiling targets (50 + 100 = 150) than it uses to build regular color printing profiles (50 + 50 = 100). I find it works pretty well.

Also, notice I said "with your ET-8550". It may prove an insurmountable limiting factor for B&W prints. Many people find that any dye-ink printer, such as your ET-8550 or my old Epson R280, is not a great choice for B&W prints. The reason is that dye inks are susceptible to showing different tints under different lighting in a way that pigment inks are not. I am relatively picky, and IMO / IME, careful practices can produce B&W dye-ink prints that look reasonably neutral most of the time, but probably can't totally avoid the problem. If you're really that into producing the best B&W prints, then arguably a pigment-ink photo printer is a better choice. The least-expensive current ones of those are the Epson P700 and the Canon Pro-310.

NAC, I usually don’t dig too too deep into the details on posts, especially when it’s not directly related to the original post. But I’m stuck waiting for an airplane now……. In your (2) above, is the end result of that just a best method for soft proofing, without any adjustments to the image itself



in my post above, I was suggesting a method for adjusting an image based on paper type via soft proofing, which i think makes a noticeable difference especially on matte paper. Noting your (2) above is a more accurate method.



cheers.

 

[Kulibertnelson]

I am planning to follow Keith Cooper‘s guidance leveraging Spyder Print to measure 21 grey scale patches and then using QuadToneRIP (QTR) shareware to generate a B&W QTR profile based on these measurements.

QTR typically generates quad file (*.quad) which tell the Epson printer how much ink to print from the individual ink channels as function of the blackness variable K when the image file (tif) is printed through QTR.

My understanding is that I cannot apply this QTR profile in Lightroom, and that I would need either Photoshop or Affinity Photo.

Lightroom does not understand these quad files.

But I think it is possible to create an ICC profile using the script

QTR-Create-ICC-RGB

which comes with QTR. This is described under

Black and white print linearisation with i1Profiler and QTR

Black and white print linearisation using QTR icc profiles created with X-Rite i1Profiler software and the i1Pro spectrophotometer

www.northlight-images.co.uk

The ICC profile created must then be placed in the appropriate ICC directory and can then be used by Lightroom.

PS: You may also want to follow the discussions under https://groups.io/g/QuadToneRIP/ like, e.g.,

https://groups.io/g/QuadToneRIP/topic/help_creating_and_using/81955927

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

Optimising B&W print - grey scale linearisation - which software to apply corrections

I think you're making it quite complex, especially for someone new at it. IMO there two sensible ways to go with your ET-8550: ...

(2) An inexpensive alternative that would allow you e.g. full soft-proofing in Lightroom Classic is to build your own dedicated B&W ICC printing profiles, either with a used X-Rite ColorMunki Photo (about $175) or a new Calibrite ColorChecker Studio ($569). I use the former. The X-Rite i1Studio software, and I assume the Calibrite software, has an option to make specialized B&W printing profiles. It actually uses more printed profiling targets (50 + 100 = 150) than it uses to build regular color printing profiles (50 + 50 = 100). I find it works pretty well.

NAC, I usually don’t dig too too deep into the details on posts, especially when it’s not directly related to the original post. But I’m stuck waiting for an airplane now……. In your (2) above, is the end result of that just a best method for soft proofing, without any adjustments to the image itself

in my post above, I was suggesting a method for adjusting an image based on paper type via soft proofing, which i think makes a noticeable difference especially on matte paper. Noting your (2) above is a more accurate method.

I'm not confident I understand your question. At the user's option, by software settings when building the profile, the end result can be either a regular profile for both soft-proofing and printing, or also (AIUI) a way to convert a color image for B&W printing.

The X-Rite i1Studio software at least (and I assume its Calibrite counterpart) works with the X-Rite ColorMunki Photo and i1Studio spectrophotometers to make ICC printing profiles. One of the software's options is to to make a B&W printing profile. Such profiles are extra-specially built to provide neutral (or certain-ways tinted, like sepia) B&W. In that software, after printing and measuring the profiling targets, you get about four options about what sort of ICC printing profile to build. My old thread about the 'back end' options in the software, including the response X-Rite gave me, is at:

https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=134277.0

I've always built profiles that are intended to print neutrally files that are already converted to B&W. But AIUI, another software option builds profiles that actually convert color images to B&W for printing.

Either way, the resulting ICC profile can be used like any other ICC profile, to soft-proof and/or print any image. And like any ICC profile, each such B&W profile is specific to one combination of printer + inks + driver settings + paper.

 

[Keith Cooper]

• For printing, I export the final image to Epson Print Layout (EPL) and print in the Advanced B&W mode (ABW). I use EPL instead of Lightroom Print Module mostly because of the user-friendliness of its user interface.
• Importantly, so far I have no need for Photoshop or Affinity Photo or similar.

Great question. Maybe, Keith has covered it.

I'm afraid not - I've a longstanding dislike of Lightroom and don't have it installed anywhere.

Epson's Advanced B&W mode uses the printer driver, not ICC profiles. Also, since the display is a not a live preview, I have always found it less than useful.

That is why I do linearity testing for B&W as part of my printer reviews.

Once the linearity is OK, I've no need for previews or the like.

I really think it dates from when the basic pigment ink printer didn't use as many gray tones and couldn't achieve as good a neutral tonality as current ink sets, Canon and Epson.

Yes, I'd say it still does better...

I personally would start by creating ICC profiles that are optimized for B&W.

Easier said than done, I'd suggest...

I make quite advanced profiles and still would not normally choose them for B&W if ABW was an option.

It's something I've discussed with several profile software creators.

Unfortunately profiles and the driver don't give sufficient control over the ink mix used.

All profiling systems have printouts designed to optimize B&W tonality, as far as I know.

Nope...

There are 'B&W' options for SpyderPrint and ccProfiler [ex i1Studio], but I put those quote marks there quite deliberately...

They can produce marginally better B&W results than 'straight' profiles, but 'optimised' is stretching it ;-)

I1Profiler for example has none of this. I've experimented with custom targets with thousands of patches, but the problem is that there is no way of setting what inks are used, if using the normal [RGB] driver.

Keith has a number of B&W test strips.

Yes, quite a selection ;-)

https://www.northlight-images.co.uk/test-image-for-black-and-white-printing/

I think the greater challenge is creating a final image for printing that does have rich tonal separations/interpretations.

That's why I make the effort to get the linearity sorted. Then I can concentrate on the tonality in my editing, in conjunction to knowing what sort of media I'm using.

Good luck. Interested in the comments.

I'm curious as to how best to deal with this in Lightroom...

 

[ken5678]

Optimising B&W print - grey scale linearisation - which software to apply corrections

I think you're making it quite complex, especially for someone new at it. IMO there two sensible ways to go with your ET-8550: ...

(2) An inexpensive alternative that would allow you e.g. full soft-proofing in Lightroom Classic is to build your own dedicated B&W ICC printing profiles, either with a used X-Rite ColorMunki Photo (about $175) or a new Calibrite ColorChecker Studio ($569). I use the former. The X-Rite i1Studio software, and I assume the Calibrite software, has an option to make specialized B&W printing profiles. It actually uses more printed profiling targets (50 + 100 = 150) than it uses to build regular color printing profiles (50 + 50 = 100). I find it works pretty well.

NAC, I usually don’t dig too too deep into the details on posts, especially when it’s not directly related to the original post. But I’m stuck waiting for an airplane now……. In your (2) above, is the end result of that just a best method for soft proofing, without any adjustments to the image itself

in my post above, I was suggesting a method for adjusting an image based on paper type via soft proofing, which i think makes a noticeable difference especially on matte paper. Noting your (2) above is a more accurate method.

I'm not confident I understand your question. At the user's option, by software settings when building the profile, the end result can be either a regular profile for both soft-proofing and printing, or also (AIUI) a way to convert a color image for B&W printing.

The X-Rite i1Studio software at least (and I assume its Calibrite counterpart) works with the X-Rite ColorMunki Photo and i1Studio spectrophotometers to make ICC printing profiles. One of the software's options is to to make a B&W printing profile. Such profiles are extra-specially built to provide neutral (or certain-ways tinted, like sepia) B&W. In that software, after printing and measuring the profiling targets, you get about four options about what sort of ICC printing profile to build. My old thread about the 'back end' options in the software, including the response X-Rite gave me, is at:

https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=134277.0

I've always built profiles that are intended to print neutrally files that are already converted to B&W. But AIUI, another software option builds profiles that actually convert color images to B&W for printing.

Either way, the resulting ICC profile can be used like any other ICC profile, to soft-proof and/or print any image. And like any ICC profile, each such B&W profile is specific to one combination of printer + inks + driver settings + paper.

thanks for the explanation. always nice to understand "more advanced" methods and processes, that perhaps I'll try one day.

at the current time, I'm very happy using the ABW print mode. I do a fair bit of soft proofing using the paper manf. ICC for this, in PS, and happy that I get about as close as I can on the monitor, and then it's often going to take a proof print or two to get the print I want.

 

[olyflyer]

Black and white printing is really not rocket science. I do it happily on my ET-8550 with excellent results. The simple advice is to convert the image to B&W in your favourite editor and edit it to your taste, after that send the B&W image to EPL and print using ABW to make the final adjustments and then just click on print. I even made a video about it. I am printing mainly on Ilford Galerie Pearl, which in my opinion is very good for B&W prints, but also printed on Epson paper with excellent results, no colour cast at all.

 

[Petruska]

Most people should use your procedure for B&W, plus you are using 2 FREE apps to get excellent results.

Bob P.

 

[Adam2]

Maybe I am missing something but since you're working with an Epson printer and have an interest in B&W, why not use the QTR program for everything? When I used to print with Epson printers, this was the way to go and I use to create profiles and achieve great linearization. Unfortunately, I use Canon printers now and this is not an option. Instead, I use their Professional Print & Layout software and employ the Black and White option. It's a black box to be sure, but it produces really good results with conventional profiles.

 

[MikaelWeber]

Original poster here. Thank you all for your valuable comments!

My original question was very specific, relating to software that one could use to apply level adjustment curves, assigning/converting to (greyscale) profiles etc.., that is, the corrections which result from measuring the density of the target grey scale patches.

At the end I decided to cave in and upgrade my Lightroom subscription to Lightroom+Photoshop, hoping that I'll find additional value in the latter as I learn how to use it.

_______________

Let me try to address some of the comments. Most were either questioning the use of QuadToneRIP or why bother optimising ABW output at all. Now, as a newbie I am simply trying to follow the logic, rationale, experience and methodology of experts who've invested a lot of effort in this.

As to why bother/'complicate', it is a personal decision how simple or complex you want your hobby to be and when you decide that the results are 'good enough' for you. There's nothing wrong with keeping it simple but - equally - there's also nothing wrong if one has a wish, tools, time and curiosity to try to push the boundary and test and experiment if more quality can be squeezed out of the tools at one's disposal.

The ET-8550 being my first printer on which I print photos (i.e. I don't have any baseline reference point to which to compare), I am already quite satisfied with EPL and ABW and how the A3+ (13x19") prints look on good quality paper. But, as I already explained in the original post, I would now like to go one step further and learn and experiment if I can in any meaningful way optimise and refine my B&W prints even further. Perhaps I'll learn it's not worth the bother, but how am I supposed to know if I don't at least try.

As to the rationale for greyscale linearisation, if one is genuinely interested in the topic (again, nothing wrong if not), there are many resources available on the internet, including numerous articles and videos by Keith Cooper.

As to the comments about the complexity of QRT software: in my original post I provided the methodology that I am planning to follow:

https://www.northlight-images.co.uk/spyderprint-black-and-white-print-refinement/

By the way, these are his related articles using different devices (I hope Keith doesn't mind me reposting these here):

• ColorPort/QTR and B&W
• B&W linearisation, i1Profiler and QTR
• B&W linearisation with the i1iO
• B&W linearisation with i1Pro3
• B&W linearisation with i1iSis
• Scanner based B&W linearisation
• Original SpyderPrint/PrintFixPro article (2008))

In the guidance you'll see that the QRT software in this context is not used as the print tool, but simply as a simple tool to convert raw grey density data from your measurements to an icc profile (that you use as a correction to apply to your photo in your editing software before you print).

In practical terms, one drops a .txt file containing your raw data to the QTR-Create-ICC-RGB applet in the QRT application folder... a matter of seconds, and no need to do anything else or learn anything about QRT.

As to the question on why not use QRT for everything, including printing, my understanding - perhaps I am wrong - is that the printing part of the software is only intended for printers with purely pigment inks (which ET-8550 and its original inkset is not - only one black ink is pigment). The list of supported printer/ink combination is on the QRT website . I checked also on the QRT forum (thanks Hendrik for the tip on this resource!) and ET-8550 is not supported.

Thanks again for the discussion, much appreciated!

 

[Malcolm Richardson]

Original poster here. Thank you all for your valuable comments!

My original question was very specific, relating to software that one could use to apply level adjustment curves, assigning/converting to (greyscale) profiles etc.., that is, the corrections which result from measuring the density of the target grey scale patches.

At the end I decided to cave in and upgrade my Lightroom subscription to Lightroom+Photoshop, hoping that I'll find additional value in the latter as I learn how to use it.

Hi Mikael,

I'm sorry I'm a little late to this thread. I just saw it. Not sure if you have Lr or LR Classic but I thought you should know that can do all this in LR Classic.

As you know, you can't use profiles with Epson's ABW but it is still a very good mode for B&W prints.

Kieth Cooper's tutoral https://www.northlight-images.co.uk/fine-tuning-black-and-white-photo-printing/ on "Optimising B&W print modes with a scanner" describes how to make linearization curves that can be saved as an adjustment curve layer that is then applied to the image just before sending to the printer.

Although LrC doesn't allow layers, it does allow you to apply curves in the Develop module under Tone Curve. A curve can be created and then saved as a Preset in the tone curve panel of the Develop module. The tone curve should be applied after all processing-to-taste and just before printing to the ABW driver. Ideally, one should make and save a curve for each paper/printer combination.

I really like both the Print module in Lr Classic and the ABW mode for my Epson and I find that this method is much more straightforward than trying to use QTR or sending a file out to Epson Print Layout or Photoshop or any other print program but you could still use this method in LrC and then print from another program if you wish.

Hope this helps.