Ian Barber , Jan 24, 2012; 08:52 a.m.
Printer used: Epson R2880
The majority of my black and white conversion happens in Silver Efex Pro.
I have started to add a light Coffee Tone to my images in SEP which to me look quite nice. The tone settings are Coffee (13 and remove the paper tone slider to 0%)
I appreciate that when I push this image out to the printer via the ABW mode, the Tone I applied in SEP will not be honoured and i have the ability to use the colour wheel in the ABW driver to add a tone.
My issue..... I have a red/green colour deficiency which is making it virtually impossible for me to reproduce the tone I like with the colour wheel.
Can anyone suggest how I could reproduce this either with numbers or any advice really.
I am trying to build a seamless workflow where the toned prints I will be putting on the net represents what comes out of the printer, based on been viewed on a good calibrated monitor in the first instance of course.
Ian
Mod note: Moved from B&W Photo - Printing & Finishing forumEric Friedemann 
, Jan 24, 2012; 03:03 p.m.
When I make a toned B&W print on my Epson 3880, I print it as an RGB image, not in ABW mode.
Ian Barber , Jan 24, 2012; 05:06 p.m.
Thanks for the reply Eric
I know that printing as an RGB image is an option but I was lead to believe that using the ABW driver produces better results at it is mixes the black inks better. Complex subject but I may be wrong
ian
Andrew Rodney 
, Jan 24, 2012; 08:52 p.m.
ABW is a black box. You let it convert the data to it’s proprietary B&W and ink usage (not all inks are used). You can’t use a third party method to convert and then use ABW. IF you must use such a third party process, you have to print using an ICC profile and forget ABW. The downside to ABW is no soft proofing, no control over the process other than using the sliders in the driver as you view Greg Gorman’s image. The upside is very neutral prints if so desired, less ink use, longer archived print.
Ian Barber , Jan 25, 2012; 03:53 a.m.
If I have understood you correctly, if I was to do the black and white conversion of my image in Nik Silver Efex Pro, I would have to print the image as i would a colour image assigning it an ICC profile for the paper I am printing on.
What is the recommended workflow for using the ABW mode if it is just a Black Box
Patrick Lavoie 
, Jan 25, 2012; 09:07 a.m.
color toned image (sepia, cyanotype, platinum, brownish colodion etc..) have to be print like any other color. If you are not after neutral BW, then you use the color mode way of printing.
If you want dead neutral BW, you dont need a profile to be selected in Photoshop, Lightroom or else,.. simply let the printer determine color, then use the ABW to print on any kind of inkjet paper. Profile are not needed 99% of the time for that. I leave all the default option except that i like to put 3 and 3 in the white box beside the color wheel.. i find it give a even more neutral BW (i find the epson one on the colder side).
If you want you can apply a sepia, colr, warm tone to your image at that stage.. for some, its easier and better to let epson do it at that stage.
Andrew Rodney , Jan 25, 2012; 10:23 a.m.
If I have understood you correctly, if I was to do the black and white conversion of my image in Nik Silver Efex Pro, I would have to print the image as i would a colour image assigning it an ICC profile for the paper I am printing on.
Correct.
What is the recommended workflow for using the ABW mode if it is just a Black Box
The same as if you were using any other color to B&W technique expect it does it for you with less control overall (you have a few sliders, you can’t view your image etc). But the output is significantly different: less inks used, far less metameric failure, prints are more lightfast).
Alan Goldhammer , Jan 26, 2012; 03:16 p.m.
One correction to Andrew's post above. If you are using a Win computer, you can use ABW profiles for softproofing since Windows does not lock out the use of profiles as does the new MacOS. Eric Chan used to prepare ABW profiles but is no longer because of the lack of Mac support (though not all of us are MacAholics). You can prepare your own ABW profiles using Roy Harrington's QTR. You will see some improvement in your ABW prints as the Epson print driver is not completely linear which is what the profile corrects for. The big difference between an ABW print and a color managed B/W print is that you get a deeper Dmax (hence an extended gray scale range) with ABW. If you really are happy with your toning process by all means use the color managed process as it will really be difficult to replicate that tone using the Epson color wheel.
Ian Barber , Jan 26, 2012; 03:24 p.m.
Can I add another question to this topic.
I'm using a Mac (lion) and when I enter the ABW driver, I am only seeing a small selection of paper profiles listed although i know I have more than that in my profile folder.
I am little confused as to what media type to select, I am wanting to print on Hahnemuhle Baryta paper.
Emil Ems , Jan 27, 2012; 07:26 a.m.
Andrew and Patrick,
How can you see on the screen what you get on paper, if there is no proofing profile for ABW printing? From experience I know that I always have to make adjustments to account for the difference between the two forms of illumination (transmission vs reflection). Is there no way of proofing for that in ABW?
