Black and White Printing

[cirks]

Guys - where's best to get B&W printed? Are Photobox good for B&W as well as colour? I've seen recommendations in magazines that suggest using film processors rather than digital as quality tends to be better. What's your experience? John? Steve?

[simpo two]

I haven't made comparisons but I'm very happy with PhotoBox; I doubt you'll be disappointed.

[fergusd]

simpo two said:

I haven't made comparisons but I'm very happy with PhotoBox; I doubt you'll be disappointed.

I've had a few purely monochrome images printed - I found that the blacks were slightly sepia . . . ie. not black like a real print . . .

I've seen the same to different degrees over a number of different orders, sizes, etc . . .

To be honest it totally puts me off printing monochrome stuff as is I want black I really want black . . .

This is all with photobox, the colour stuff I am very happy with . . .

Fd

[ehasler]

I've not tried any B&W stuff from Photobox, but I'd be surprised if it was perfect as they will be using a colour printing process to produce B&W. This is one area where an inkjet print can be much better than a continuous tone print, as it's possible to use black and grey inks instead of colours to make up the different shades of grey, which will avoid any tinting of the image.

Ideally, you'd want to look for someone who's using a specific B&W inkset, or one of the new Epson K3 printers which are very impressive.

[poah]

I print B&W on my epson R2400 and had a few done by photobox. I found photobox to be quite good so long as you know the difference between your screen and their prints. lucky for me the prints only differ in brightness so can adjust quite easy. I have a few B&W images in my pro gallery www.photoboxgallery.com/qc so have a look see how they look on your screen and adjust accordingly.