ABW on 3880 printer

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nikonuser

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Dave
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Will ABW on my 3880 printer give me better B+W images than using Colour and 'Photoshop Manages Colour's' with a paper profile.
Dave
 
My understanding of it (and I may be wrong as I am anew 3880 owner) is that ABW is meant for printing a colour image in black and white without converting in software and letting the printer handle it.

Personally I have always used Let Photoshop handle colour management and use the paper manufacturer's profile and select the correct paper type in print options.
This of course when I have already converted.

However I would be interested to hear others opinions
 
nikonuser said:
Will ABW on my 3880 printer give me better B+W images than using Colour and 'Photoshop Manages Colour's' with a paper profile.
Dave
Click to expand...

you have to run ABW with no colour management (so no CS5 or CS6) although you can run a linear profile with photoshop manages colour. ABW only uses the black inks while profiles use colours. I could never see the difference by eye.
 
As I see it, it is an Epson driven function, where the printer manages colours and as POAH says Lightroom or PS are not involved at all so there is no icc profile choice and only the black inks are used.
Steve - I think ABW is meant for B+W prints only although I may be wrong....will check it out
Dave

PS Taken from Ian Barbers eBook on Epson ABW Drive - The Epson Advanced Black and White driver in its simplest terms is a black box. You can
send a colour file through the driver and will convert it to black and white based on its own
algorithm.
I would recommend that you do the initial black and white conversion in post production
rather than letting the driver do the conversion as this will give you greater control.
The ABW driver will deliver outstanding Neutral Black and White prints. One of the
advantages of using the ABW driver is that it turns off two of the coloured inks (Cyan and
Magenta)
Unlike the colour print driver which requires a colour ICC profile, the Epson Advanced
Black and White driver does not require any profiles because ABW is a non ICC workflow.
 
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Nikonuser - Sorry perhaps I was not clear, I did not mean that I print in colour using ABW, I mean that I was under the impression that ABW is for printing B&W from a colour image without first doing a PS B&W conversion?

Here is a bit from thr 3880 manual:

Advanced black-and-white photo printing is available in the Color Controls dialog, allowing color images to be printed in black-and-white without first converting them to monochrome in the imaging application. The print image is adjuted without affecting the original data.

Note:
Even in ABW modes, ink from all cartridges is used to keep the print heads in good condition.
 
Thanks Steve, for the clarification, I have seen Eric Chan's FAQ's and POAH for the other link which I will read later.
Soooo, which is the better option (if any....or are they all of a muchness)
1. create a B+W image first then use Epson ABW driver.
2. coloured image then use Epson ABW driver to convert to B+W, or
3. create B+W image in Lightroom or PS then use icc profile for paper
 
remember that if you use 3rd party papers you may not get a print/screen match.
 
POAH said:
remember that if you use 3rd party papers you may not get a print/screen match.
Click to expand...

Just bought Colormunki Photo to do monitor/paper calibrations
 
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