[filmscanners] RE: Suggestions for scanning 4x5 transparencies

["Laurie Solomon" <laurie@advancenet.net>]

>In regard to the grays, I was referring to gray tones in the color print. I
>know they weren't strictly neutral but at least the eye shouldn't be
>influenced as much by saturation and brilliance.

Well, that does help clarify some confusing elements that troubled me; but
it means that the scan was an RGB scan and the output to both monitor and
printer were RGB as well and likely governed by color profiles; the optical
enlargement on Ilfochrome involves probably an entirely different working
space and color gamut within which grays are created.  Why wouldn't the
grays be influenced  as to their snap by color casts in the gray as well as
saturation and brilliance of the combined inks that produce it.

All inkjet printers require RGB inputs which they internally convert within
the printer driver to one form or another of CYMK; so the Epson 2200 is not
all that different except for the fact that it is seven color with light
shades of Cyan, Magenta, and Black which helps fill in some of the gaps so
as to provide smoother transitions.  In my view, 2400 ppi should be more
than enough for noraml sized enlargments from 4x5s.

You should not need to upsample at all to resize a 4x5 at 2400 ppi to
13x16.25 at 600ppi which is more than enough.  The 720 dpi figure that Epson
uses is really not to be taken literally since it is an extrapolation of the
what the approximate resolution is after dithering and is accomplished not
in terms of actual imputs but in terms of what goes on within the printing
process by the printer regardless of the input resolution.  In terms of
actual input resolution, the 720 is equivalent of from 200 dpi to 300 dpi
before dithering.

>

-----Original Message-----
From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
[mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of snsok@cox.net
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2002 4:05 PM
To: laurie@advancenet.net
Subject: [filmscanners] RE: Suggestions for scanning 4x5 transparencies


In regard to the grays, I was referring to gray tones in the color print. I
know they weren't strictly neutral but at least the eye shouldn't be
influenced as much by saturation and brilliance.

I wish we had the ability to try the different flatbeds before buying.

My understanding of the workings of the Epson 2200 is that the mandatory RGB
input is resampled to 720 ppi and converted to CMYK (or I guess more
correctly, CcMmYKk as there are 7 pigments). So it sounds like the Epson
2450 should have plenty of resolution at 2400 ppi. The printer is capable of
13 inches on the short side and my pencil calculations indicate that the
image from the Epson can be increased by 3.25 without having to upsample to
achieve the 720 ppi.

The other characteristics should be the deciding factors--right?

Stan

-----Original Message-----
From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
[mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Laurie Solomon
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2002 1:44 AM
To: snsok@cox.net
Subject: [filmscanners] RE: Suggestions for scanning 4x5 transparencies


Since you put it that way, the answer has to be it depends on who you talk
to. :-)  However, in all seriousness, I would say that in all probability
the average highend prosummer flatbed scanner is probably satisfactory for
producing scans intended for printing on the high end inkjet printers like
the Epson 2200, assunming the scanner has good dynamic range, an acceptible
bit depth, and reasonable optical resolution. Other design features and
specs, in my opinion, are of lesser significance in answering your question.
Resolutions is most important in determining how large one intends the
scanned image to be reproduced.  If we are talking of producing
magnifications of billboard proportions from a 4x5 or smaller (or even an
8x10), one would probably not only want but need the optical resolutions
provided by a high end drum scanner.  Bit depth becomes most important for
color but can impact on the number of tones of gray in grayscale one can
obtain in a scan; dynamic range is important in defining the contrast range
that the scanner will be able to render in terms of capturing details in
contrast to noise.

Things like snap, saturation of colors, contrast and tonal range, neutrality
of color, etc. in the final prints is more a product of the printer's
limitations and the limits of the media and inks used to produce the final
finished print.

Hence the limitations are products of which set of limiting factors one is
taking into consideration as being constraining factors in determining
"quality."

However, in the above, I neglected to mention that you have moved back and
forth between referring to the printing of color transparencies in color I
presume and the printing of grayscale files.  Your first concern was with
the lack of snap in the grayscale print versus what you saw in the monitor
with some referral even in that case to a comparison with Ilfochrome prints,
which are not grayscale but color prints.  Color and grayscale are two
different animals in terms of both scanning and printing; and one has to be
careful not to confuse the two and overgeneralize from one to the other.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------
Unsubscribe by mail to listserver@halftone.co.uk, with 'unsubscribe
filmscanners'
or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title
or body

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe by mail to listserver@halftone.co.uk, with 'unsubscribe 
filmscanners'
or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or 
body