Expanded Neutrals Testing

Several posts in the LULA Forum and further thinking about the importance of the grayscale to overall image quality sparked my interest in developing an expanded approach (based on what I have been doing heretofore) for testing the accuracy and neutrality of grayscale tonal rendition as well as the depth of tonal separation for rendering B&W shadow detail. As I shall be deploying this expanded approach in a forthcoming printer and paper reviews for LULA, I thought it useful to provide an article explaining this expanded approach.
Before getting into the details of the methodology, a quick recap on the logic of why photographers or other printmakers should be interested in the accuracy of profiles and the nuances of tonal separation. Careful photo editors work with a colour-managed set-up between monitor and printer; they use high-quality profiles firstly for editing (under soft-proof on their monitors) the color and tone values they wish to see emerging on paper from their printer...