Fine Art Printing for Photographers, 3rd Edition

Fine Art Printing for Photographers, 3rd Edition

by Uwe Steinmueller, Juergen Gulbins
Released October 2013
Publisher(s): Rocky Nook
ISBN: 9781457182204

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Book description

Today's digital cameras continue to produce increasingly higher definition image data files, making high resolution, large-format output possible. As printing technology moves forward at an equally fast pace, the new inkjet printers are capable of printing with great precision at a very fine resolution, providing an amazing tonal range and significantly superior image permanence at a more affordable price. In the hands of knowledgeable photographers, these printers are able to produce prints that are comparable to the highest quality darkroom prints on fine art paper.

The third edition of this best-selling book provides the necessary foundation for successful fine art printing: the understanding of color management, profiling, paper, and inks. It offers advice on selecting an appropriate printer for long-lasting fine art prints, demonstrates how to set up the printing workflow and select a suitable paper for your subject, and guides you step-by-step through the process of converting an image file to an outstanding fine art print.

This new edition covers the most recent lines of high-end inkjet printers, photo papers, and devices for monitor and printer profiling. It also addresses the printing dialogs and some new features of Photoshop CS6.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Preface
    1. Fine Art Printing is a Sensuous Endeavor
    2. Experiment ... and Discover!
    3. Acknowledgements
    4. Foreword by Mac Holbert (Nash Editions)
      1. What’s New in this Third Edition?
  6. 1 Printing Techniques
    1. 1.1 Basic Printing Techniques
      1. The Journey from a Pixel to a Printed Point
      2. How Image Pixels are Reproduced by Printer Dots
      3. What are “Lines Per Inch”?
      4. How Many Pixels or Dots Per Inch Do You Really Need?
    2. 1.2 Offset Printing
    3. 1.3 Laser Printers
    4. 1.4 Dye-Sublimation Printers
    5. 1.5 LightJet Printing (Digital Photo Print)
    6. 1.6 Inkjet Printing
      1. Inkjet Technology
        1. Continuous Flow Inkjet
        2. Piezo Inkjet
        3. Thermal Inkjet
      2. Droplet Size
      3. Printer Resolution
      4. Number of Inks
      5. Types of Inks
    7. 1.7 Other Printing Techniques
    8. 1.8 How to Pick Your Fine Art Printer
      1. Image Quality
      2. Rich Color Gamut
      3. Print Permanence
      4. Black-and-White Printing
      5. Adequate Print Size and Print Performance
      6. Types of Papers Supported
      7. Costs
      8. More Points to Consider
      9. Printer Interface
      10. PostScript RIP
      11. Exchangeable Print heads
      12. Cutters
      13. Densitometers and Spectrophotometers
  7. 2 Inks, Papers, and Print Permanence
    1. 2.1 Print Permanence
      1. ”Display Permanence Ratings” are Predictions
      2. Light as a Factor of Print Permanence
      3. Temperature Influencing “Dark Fading”
      4. Humidity
      5. Gases and Their Influence on Print Permanence
      6. Paper Additives
      7. How to Improve the Permanence of Your Prints
    2. 2.2 Inks
      1. Dye-Based Inks
      2. Pigmented Inks
    3. 2.3 Papers
      1. Paper Characteristics
      2. Paper Ingredients
      3. Whiteness and Brightness
        1. Optical Brighteners
        2. Paper Weight and Paper Thickness
      4. Paper Coating
      5. Paper Surface – Paper Finish
      6. Paper Size
      7. Matching Inkjet Technology, Subject, Paper, and Ink
      8. Additional Characteristics
      9. Other Materials
      10. Paper Handling
        1. Suitable Digital Fine Art Papers
  8. 3 Color Management for Printing
    1. 3.1 Understanding Different Color Models
      1. RGB Color Model
      2. Lab Color Model
      3. CMYK Color Model
      4. Grayscale Mode
      5. HSB/HSL Color Model
      6. Color Spaces
    2. 3.2 Understanding Color Management
      1. Why You Need to Understand Color Management
      2. ICC Profiles
      3. What is a Color Management System?
      4. Color Working Spaces
    3. 3.3 Visualization of Color Spaces
    4. 3.4 Color Space Mapping
    5. 3.5 Creating Device Profiles
      1. Camera Profiles
      2. Printer Profiles
    6. 3.6 Profiling Your Monitor
      1. Calibration by Eye
      2. Hardware-Based Calibration
      3. Calibration Settings
      4. Calibrating and Profiling Your Monitor Using ColorMunki Photo
    7. 3.7 Photoshop Color-Management Settings
      1. Working Spaces
      2. Color Management Policies
      3. Conversion Options
      4. Advanced Controls
      5. Setting your Monitor profile
    8. 3.8 Profiles for Your Printer
      1. Profiling Your Printer
      2. Printer Profiling Using X-Rite’s ColorMunki Photo
    9. 3.9 Installing and Uninstalling Profiles
    10. 3.10 Finding a Printer’s Black Point and White Point
    11. 3.11 Sanity Check
    12. 3.12 Soft-Proofing and Gamut Warning
      1. Gamut Warning
      2. Soft-Proofing and Gamut Warning in Photoshop’s Print dialog
      3. Selecting “Out-of-Gamut” Colors/Areas
      4. Soft-Proofing in Lightroom
    13. 3.13 Metamerism and Bronzing
  9. 4 Fine Art Printing Workflow
    1. 4.1 Basic Printing Workflow
    2. 4.2 Tuning Tonality
      1. Brightness
      2. Midtones
      3. Shadows
      4. Highlights
      5. Contrast
      6. Global Tonality Tuning
        1. Tonality Tuning Using Photoshop “Levels”
        2. Input Levels
        3. Output Levels
        4. Tonality Tuning Using Curves
        5. Some Useful Standard Curves Shapes
      7. Local Tonality Tuning
        1. Adaptive Shadow and/or Highlight Correction
        2. Shadow Recovery
        3. Highlight Recovery
        4. Corrections to Selected Areas Using Masks
      8. Corrections Related to Certain Tonality Ranges (Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights)
      9. Painting Techniques (Mainly Dodge and Burn)
        1. Painting Using Layer Masks
      10. Dodge and Burn Using Layers
    3. 4.3 Tuning Colors
      1. Selective Saturation Improvements
      2. More Saturation and Contrast Tricks
        1. Using an Adjustment Layer with “Hard Light” Blending Mode
      3. Variation with “Soft Light”
      4. Removing Blue Shadow Casts
    4. 4.4 Local Contrast Enhancement
      1. Uwe’s DOP Detail Resolver Script
      2. Local Contrast Enhancement Using “Clarity”
    5. 4.5 Further Preparations for Printing
    6. 4.6 Resizing
      1. Upsizing with Photoshop CC
    7. 4.7 Sharpening
      1. Using Photoshop’s “Smart Sharpen” Filter
      2. Sharpening Using Photoshop’s “High Pass” Filter
      3. Sharpening Using Sharpener Pro
        1. Output Sharpening
        2. Creative Sharpening
        3. Selective Sharpening
      4. Sharpening Using Uwe’s “DOP_EasyS_Sharpening” Script
      5. Summary
  10. 5 Fine Art Printers in Practical Use
    1. 5.1 Printer Installation
      1. Connection Types
      2. Unpacking
      3. Installing the Print Heads
      4. Installing the Ink Cartridges
      5. Calibration and Printer Tests
      6. Installing the Drivers and other Software
      7. Installing Printer Profiles
    2. 5.2 Printer Adjustments
      1. Head Alignment
      2. Nozzle Check
      3. Head Cleaning
      4. Color Calibration
    3. 5.3 General Driver Tasks and Settings
      1. Settings that Influence Print Quality
        1. Paper/Media Type
        2. Print Quality Settings
      2. Color and Color Management Settings
        1. 1. Let the Client Handle Color Management
        2. 2. Let the Printer Handle Color Management
        3. Printing Speed
        4. Advanced Settings (Ink Volume, Color Density, Drying Time, etc.)
      3. More Settings
        1. Ink-Level Monitor
    4. 5.4 The Actual Print Workflow
      1. Plan Your Prints
      2. Preparing Your Images for Printing
      3. Downsizing or Upsizing Images
      4. Paper Preparation
      5. Preparing Your Printer
      6. Allow Your Print to Dry
      7. Inspecting Your Print
      8. Archiving and Framing
    5. 5.5 Printing Your Image
      1. Basic Print Settings
      2. Photoshop CS5, CS6, and CC Print Dialog
      3. Printing Different Marks and Borders
      4. Printing in Windows with the Epson Pro 3880
        1. Printer Maintenance and Ink Levels
        2. Generic Epson Pro 3880 Color Profiles
      5. Color Printing with the Canon iPF6100 under Mac OS X
        1. Print Settings, Options, or Main Tab
        2. Printer Maintenance Tools
        3. Saving Print Presets
      6. Black-and-White Printing
    6. 5.6 Printing from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
    7. 5.7 Printing Using a Printer Plug-in
      1. Canon imagePROGRAF Print Plug-In for Photoshop
      2. Main Tab
      3. Page Setup tab
      4. Color Settings tab
      5. Print History tab
      6. Conclusion on the Plug-in
    8. 5.8 Test Prints
    9. 5.9 Print Quality Issues
    10. 5.10 More Recommendations for Printing
    11. 5.11 Printed Frames
  11. 6 Printing Packages and RIPs
    1. 6.1 What is a RIP?
      1. Why Use a RIP?
    2. 6.2 Printing Using a Printing Package
      1. Qimage
    3. 6.3 Printing Using a RIP
      1. QuadToneRIP
        1. Installation on Mac OS X
        2. Printing with QTR in Mac OS X
        3. Printing with QTR in Windows
      2. ImagePrint by Colorbyte Software
        1. Color Management with ImagePrint
      3. EFI Designer Edition
      4. Printing with Mirage Pro
  12. 7 Black-and-White Prints
    1. 7.1 Workflow for Black-and-White Prints
      1. The Basic Workflow Steps in our Black-and-White Workflow
    2. 7.2 From Color to Black-and-White
      1. Black-and-White Conversion Using the Channel Mixer
      2. Using the Photoshop Black & White Adjustment Layer
      3. Black-and-White Conversion in a Raw Converter
        1. Black-and-White Conversion Using Photoshop Plug-ins
        2. Black-and-White Conversion Using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2
    3. 7.3 Toning Black-and-White Images
    4. 7.4 Printers with Black-and-White-Enabled Drivers
      1. Black-and-White Prints with Epson’s Fine Art Printers
      2. Making Black-and-White Prints Using the HP Designjet Z3200
    5. 7.5 Specialized “Raster Image Processing” (RIP) Software for Black-and-White Printing
      1. Colorbyte’s ImagePrint
      2. QuadToneRIP
      3. Other Solutions
    6. 7.6 Soft-Proofing for Black-and-White Prints
      1. Soft-Proofing Setup in Photoshop and Lightroom
      2. Some Comments from Roy Harrington Posted in Our News Group
    7. 7.7 Papers for Black-and-White Prints
      1. More Information on Black-and-White Printing
  13. 8 Image Evaluation and Presenting Fine Art Prints
    1. 8.1 Critical Image Inspection
      1. Control Tools
    2. 8.2 Presentation Options
    3. 8.3 Portfolio Binders
    4. 8.4 Matting
      1. True Matting
        1. Principles of the Matting Process
        2. Matworks! helps with your calculations
        3. A Mat-Cutting Sample Session
        4. Matting Step-by-Step
      2. Faux Matting
    5. 8.5 Framing a Print
    6. 8.6 Coating a Print
      1. Laminating a Print
    7. 8.7 Displaying a Print in True Light
      1. The Characteristics of Light
      2. Protecting Prints from Light Damage
    8. 8.8 Storing Prints
      1. Photographic Albums
  14. A Selected Fine Art Printers
    1. A.1 General Points on Fine Art Printers
      1. Inks for Black-and-White Prints
      2. Photo Black and Matte Black Simultaneously On-line
      3. Ink Cartridge Volume
      4. Print Plug-ins
      5. Printer Linearization and Calibration
      6. How to Prevent Nozzle Clogging
      7. Printer Life Cycles
    2. A.2 Canon’s Fine Art Printers
      1. Canon PIXMA Pro9500 Mk II
      2. Canon PIXMA Pro-1, Pro-10
      3. Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5100 / iPF6100 / 6300 / 6400
      4. Canon imagePROGRAF iPF8400 / iPF9400
      5. Printing with the Canon iPF6100
        1. Calibration
        2. Using the Driver
        3. Support Tools
        4. Printing Experience
        5. Notes on Photo Black and Matte Black Installed at the Same Time
        6. Summary
      6. Printing Using the PIXMA Pro-1
        1. The Printer Driver of the PIXMA Pro-1
    3. A.3 Epson Fine Art Printers
      1. Epson Stylus Photo R2000
      2. Epson Stylus R2880 / R3000
      3. Epson Stylus Pro 3880
      4. Epson Stylus Pro 4880 / 7880 / 7890 / 9880 / 9890 /11880
      5. Epson Stylus Pro 4900 / 7900 / 9900
    4. A.4 HP’s Fine Art Printers
      1. HP Designjet Z3200 Photo
        1. Printing With the HP Designjet Z3100
        2. Some Data
        3. Paper Calibration
        4. Paper Profiling
        5. The Z3100 Printer Driver
        6. Color Settings
        7. Printing Shortcuts
        8. Print Services Utilities
        9. Feeding Paper
        10. Actual Printing
        11. Conclusion
        12. More Experiences
  15. B Papers for Fine Art Printing
    1. B.1 Digital Fine Art Papers
    2. B.2 Some Notes on OBAs
      1. Conclusion
        1. How to Find Out if OBAs Are Used in a Paper
    3. B.3 Examples of Fine Art Papers
      1. Matte Papers
        1. Matte Fine Art Papers
      2. Satin/Glossy Coated Rag Papers
        1. Satin, Soft Gloss or Semigloss Papers
        2. Luster/Pearl Papers
      3. High-Gloss Papers
      4. Metallic Papers
    4. B.4 Fiber-based and Baryta Papers
    5. B.5 Canvas
    6. B.6 Specialty Papers
    7. B.7 Fine Art Papers Well Suited for Black-and-White Prints
      1. Just a Small Selection
      2. A Note on Paper Grammage and Paper Thickness
  16. C Glossary and Acronyms
  17. D Resources
    1. D.1 Recommended Books
    2. D.2 Organizations and Institutes
    3. D.3 Useful Resources on the Internet
      1. Color Management Tools
        1. RIPs, Test Software and Test Images
        2. Paper, Ink, Coatings and Cutters
  18. Index

Product information

  • Title: Fine Art Printing for Photographers, 3rd Edition
  • Author(s): Uwe Steinmueller, Juergen Gulbins
  • Release date: October 2013
  • Publisher(s): Rocky Nook
  • ISBN: 9781457182204