Digital Prints

274
Mastering Digital Printing
to print it. Best took a total of 3:53 from the moment I clicked on the Print button to
when the paper shot out of the printer. (Shot is the correct word since with this printer
the paper flies out at the end like a missile!) Max DPI, on the other hand, took a whopping
10:16 for the same print. If the difference in quality were obvious, I might be open
to taking the time to print in Max mode. However, after looking at the two prints, there
is no visual difference between them, so I think I’ll stick with Best.
Rendering Intent: The next thing to
try is to change the Rendering Intent
and Black Point Compensation
(BPC). I try a print with BPC turned
off and see virtually no difference
(this is frequently the case). Then I
try one print with each of the different
intents (go back to Chapter 4 to
revisit this). Saturation and Relative
Colorimetric are all very close to my
original Perceptual print with this
image, but Absolute Colorimetric is
clearly different (too blue).
Adjustment Layer: Because I’m
noticing a slight darkness or dinginess
in the lighter areas of the print,
especially in the cheese cutter’s top
and bottom, I think I’ll try adding
an adjustment layer to make a subtle
move. Opening a Curves layer
in Photoshop, I click on the RGB
highlight anchor point (top right)
and, using my keyboard’s arrow
key, move it to the left one number
at a time until I reach the lightness
that looks right. I find a good point
at 245 and stop (see Figure 8.23).
Sure enough, the print with this adjustment, while very subtle, feels brighter and better
overall.
I like it.
I have now made several test prints using four different workflows. Evaluating all my prints
near a large window with diffused daylight coming in, I pick a good test print (the one
I’ve been working on) as the final proof, and I check my notes for which settings were used
to make it. As a safety measure, I transfer all the setting information to the border of the
test print itself.
Different rendering intents were tested;
only one was clearly different.
Figure 8.23 Lightening the
composite RGB curve by moving the
highlight end to the left helps to
brighten the print.