I'm working on bringing real soft proofing to "B&W" profiles. By this I mean proofing that shows the actual tint of a print when soft proofing but doesn't alter RGB values sent to the device. The goal is to let one adjust the tone of a B&W print with the driver sliders for various looks an have it properly show in soft proof.
The general approach is to synthesize two profiles from the same B&W printed chart measurements. One which has the correct AtoB1 table (used by soft proof) and one which has the correct BtoA1, AtoB0 tables which translate neutrals to corrected device neutrals. Then the AtoB1 table from the first is copied into the AtoB1 tables of the second. This results in one profile that can be used for both printing and soft proofing and will accurately display whatever print tone has been set in the driver.
Argyll and I1Profiler can be used to make the necessary "B&W" profiles, and the same program used to create and process B&W patch sets can be used to make the final profile.
I should be satisfied with the relatively low "off neutrals" results I get with Doug software ABWProfilePatches, but I use non OEM inks, non-standard papers (ex. Arches Watercolor) and I hate the idea of tweaking the driver to get even better neutrals or whatever "controlled" toning I would like. If I understand correctly, the profiles created for the B&W mode are useless to control the toning, right?
The attached images are the measured values of a target 5x 52 Neutrals printed with a B&W mode profile created with Doug software + Argyll with the absolute rendering intent, no tweaking of tint. On the left, this is Arches Watercolor paper, I could probably shit the result around a little, but this paper is very warm. I kind of like the results I get with a standard color profile for this paper. For a Photo Rag Baryta paper from Hahnemuhle, on the right, I get this around the neutral axis, I doubt I could tweak this to be a bit more neutral, if you think it's possible, please tell me how?
~Yves