[Early Riser]

It’s good to have an ER around with all the BS. Now if I can RAP in a few thoughts…

BrownTrout Publishing had been doing my New England Black and White calendar from 2003 to 2006. But it was cancelled in 2007, along with all of the other b&w calendars, including David Muench’s, Kim Weston’s and Keith Carters. WOW, my name in with these guys? I did manage to contract for the 2008 NJ Wild and Scenic calendar in color.

But the b&w’s were cancelled because they just were not selling. I think the main reason was because the reproductions were just not up to par. I enjoy working with them and I tried to get them to put 2 inch borders instead of bleeding to the edges, but they would not change.

I have noticed that with the increasing switch to digital workflow among printers and publishers that the ability to properly reproduce B&W is diminishing. Clearly the bigger market for printers today is color. When digital methodology hit the printing world all of the calibration methods were heavily weighted towards color. It seems that if you want good large scale publishing of B&W you need to find a niche printer still utilizing the older technologies or a small boutique printer specializing in very high quality, small run, and therefore very expensive, B&W printing.

Poorly reproduced B&W art does not sell well. B&W imagery suffers more from poor printing than does color printing. With the inability to consistently reproduce B&W well, and the subsequent drop in the sales of B&W posters or calendars, it is easy to see why many publishers are leaving B&W all together.