So if a photographer can not calibrate their display to print, or refuses to… why would a photographer refuse to calibrate to print? The reason I hear the most, is that they do not like the look of the display. The next reason is that they like their image better when its super contrasty. So what happens is that they see fantastic blacks and then complain that the resultant Piezography prints are “too light”. Yet Piezography is capable of making fantastic blacks. In fact, the best strength of Piezography is its ability to render endless detail in the shadows. Some photographers however, do not like shadow detail. They could not print it in the darkroom, and do not want to adapt to Piezography shadow detail. If the preference is for decreasing shadow detail and increasing what will print as black – then there is a workflow which keeps the best parts of Piezography but makes the bottom end much denser.

Piezography can produce custom K7 profiles for photographers who prefer a heavier shadow detail, so that it more closely approximates a display which is calibrated too bright.

In the graphic above, the display is set to a brightness level so that black and white preview at an extremely high contrast of 500:1. In order to imitate the compression of the shadows, Piezography can produce a custom K7 profile for the photographer who prefers using monitors which compress shadow detail. In the graphic above, the gray levels of the Piezography prints made with standard and custom type 2 profiles for QuadTone RIP. On the right you can see that the shadows seem heavier and blacker, but this is merely localized compression produced by our custom type 2 profiles. The following graphic illustrates the lineratization of a K7 profile and the custom K7 type 2 profile.

The Type 2 curve is linear from the highlights into the midtones where it begins to pick up contrast similar to a contrast display. LCDs tend to calibrate dark towards the bottom of the contrast range which results in a perception of compressed shadows as well as a significantly blacker point. The Type 2 assimilates this process to that it produces a print which is closer to the image on the display.

If you can visualize the two illustrations above and their relationship – the Type 2 profile “linearization” imitates it:

Be sure to read about the custom profiling services provided by InkjetMall for Piezography K6 and K7 inks. You can choose to either

1. linearize your personal printer with K7/K6 inks and your choice of matte paper
2. create a “gloss” profile for Piezography MPS inks and your choice of non-matte paper
3. or have a Type 2 version matte or gloss profile made

The process involves receiving a special “master curve” and 256 patch Type 1 or Type 2 target from us, printing the target through the master curve and either returning the target for us to read and compile into a QTR curve or measuring the target yourself and returning the data by email.