A Black and White test image

When looking at digital black and white, an important aspect is the printing. Keith has looked at a lot of printers and ink systems for monochrome work and felt he wanted a test image that would enable quick comparisons. -- See also our page with more general (colour) test images

Black and White printer test image

The test image below is based on two of my landscape pictures that show up different aspects of B/W print quality.

By using a known test image, you can get a 'feel' for a paper/ink combination, which I often prefer to use for new works over any 'soft proofing' set-up

The What's New Page gives a quick overview of the hundreds of pages of articles and picture on this site.

This page is part of the Digital Black and White section of our Articles and info section

monochrome test print for testing black and white printing

The light sky in the Hood Canal picture has very delicate shading to bring out the subtle cloud and mist features, while the dark shadows in the Anasazi ruin (from Mesa Verde) are a harsh test for any digital black and white print set-up.

The windows are solid black, but there is fine detail in most of the deep shadow.

For example, the shadow in the bottom RH corner of the ruins has a lot of detail in the range K=92-100% (black).

That corner really shows up any obvious steps or non-linearity in deep shadows. You should be able to read the black text of the copyright notice in that area of the print.

In the two small sections of image at the top right hand side, the bench should be quite clearly visible and there should be visible detail on the wall behind the wooden beam.

The graduated blocks and 21 step wedge (5% increments) also give a more absolute test. In the small sample from the Hood Canal image at the bottom, there is meant to be some visible noise - it is part of the image.

The solid black wedges at the right hand side tend to show up any over-inking or smudging, although I'd always suggest doing a nozzle check of any inkjet printer before doing the test print. Modern printers with their very fine droplet size can be misfiring on several nozzles without making the obvious lines that you used to see on older inkjet printers.

The file is meant to print on an A4 sheet at 300dpi. The file is in the gray gamma 2.2 space. My original version is created as a 16 bit file which ensures that the 8 bit version here should have smooth transitions (Photoshop actually introduces a small amount of dither in the 16 bit -> 8 bit conversion to improve the transitions). The file on this site is a JPEG at a Photoshop quality setting of 10, so should be good enough for the test.

You can download the full size version here (zipped 1.2MB jpeg file)

The image shows up colour casts and uneven steps very well. You may want to make sure that your monitor is pretty well set up and adjusted (calibrated) too, since the image will show up deficiencies there as well.

April 08 - we have updated versions (A4 and US Letter) designed to be used with the X-Rite ColorMunki and QuadToneRIP for creating black and white icc profiles. More details on our ColorMunki for black and white printing page.

Two other parts that show up problems are the cicular patch and the checker pattern

This circular patch shows up steps or non linearity in the greyscale that are too subtle for the longer horizontal greyscale ramps.

This part of the image may be the only area where you see any visible non-linearity, but if it isn't smooth then the printer/driver/paper/ink combination fails for -my- own work.

See also Graham Preston's version below which is for more quantitative use

black and white printer test for shadow detail

The checker pattern should ideally show detail all the way down to the area indicated above.

I'll only consider using a printer for any of my landscape work if it passes this test. You might also want to use it to test the skills of anyone you get to do B/W prints for you ;-)

Strip version of test print

Here is the 11"x2.5" version of the test image that I use to save paper when wanting to do several tests.

black and white printer test strip

Download link

Graham Preston has produced a test image aimed at showing up more details of non-linearity.

He has kindly allowed Northlight Images to host the file

Graham's test image (300 dpi 13x19 cm) has circular gradients on it, both positive and negative.

Unlike the example in my own test image there are also stepped versions that allow you a more precise measurement of where the non linearity is in your prints.

As he says...
"And once I started to understand what my circular gradients were telling me, I came to realise that they're not very forgiving. It's important to keep in mind that any test image is a tool and not a picture : the important thing is that we're happy with our output, not that we're producing a perfect linearization."

Download test image
(zipped 300 dpi 13x19 cm jpeg)

Other related resources on this site

Keith's thoughts on black and white printing

Getting into Black and White - an interview with Keith Cooper

Info on monitor set-up

BW printing review with Monochrome Pro inks and QTR (QuadToneRIP)

More test images and links to ones on the web

The test image was put together for my own testing, but if you find the image of use or have any suggestions as to improving it, please feel free to drop me a line.

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Digital Black and White. Keith was recently interviewed about digital black and white photography for a magazine article. We have an expanded version here covering some of his thoughts, techniques and tips for those thinking of trying black and white.

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