The basics

Testing tones
ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 5.0 FOR DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHERS
There are 256 levels of tones in each
channel (red, green and blue) of a
24-bit digital image. A value of 0 is
pure black and a value of 255 is pure
white. Desktop inkjet machines do
an admirable job of printing most
of these tones but they do have
trouble printing delicate highlight
(values of between 230 and 255) and
shadow (values between 0 and 40)
details. The absorbency of the paper
in combination with the inkset and
the printer settings means that some
machines will be able to print all
256 levels of tones whilst others will
only be able to output a smaller subset. Being able to predict and account for lost shadow and
highlight tones will greatly improve your overall print quality.
To test your own printer/ink/paper set up make a stepped grayscale that contains separate tonal
strips from 0 to 255 in approximately fi ve-tone intervals. Alternatively, download the example
grayscale from the book’s website (www.adv-elements.com). Print the grayscale using the best
quality settings for the paper you are using. Examine the results. In particular, check to see at
what point it becomes impossible to distinguish dark gray tones from pure black and light gray
values from white. Note these values down for later use as they represent the range of tones
printable by your printer/paper/ink combination.
Step 1 >> Download and print the
tone-test.jpg image using your
favorite settings and paper type.
Quality printing >> When using some paper, ink and printer
combinations delicate highlight and shadow details are lost. Being
able to account for these output characteristics makes for better
prints. (a) Lost highlights. (b) Lost shadows.
Step 2 >> Examine the print after
30 minutes drying time to locate the
values where you cannot distinguish
shadow and highlight detail.
Step 3 >> Input these values as the
black and white output points in the
Levels dialog when next printing with
this paper, ink and printer combination.
Book resources at: www.adv-elements.com
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FINELY CRAFTED OUTPUT