"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
Totally jealous. I use the 'eyeball' technique to enter my linearization values into Accurip. I look at the film and guess how much each 10% increment of fill is actually printing as. Then, I try and do the same on-press. It gets it close but not close enough that you're optimizing your ability to resolve the %s at the ends. I'd love to be pulling off 3% dots consistently and knowing exactly when it's going to happen rather than them being bonus dots. The densitometer is the easiest approach but, I wonder, could you put your films and then your test printed garments under a microscope, grid off an area, measure the ink within it, do a little math and get the values that way? Or is that way more work in the end?I would really like a way to close the loop, so to speak, and get a calibration happening on what is going to show up on press after gain. This would expedite and empower the separation process so much. Instead, I feel like I'm just going with my gut all the time.
Just curious, how did the Co. you worked for adjust or handle the different calibration of dot gain with each different plate of the CMYK? Did they output them individually and have a specific dot gain adjustment based on sequence?
Did I mention that I got that 3% dot with my flourescent light unit..using high output unfiltered UV bulbs