Re: [Gimp-user] Printing out Greyscale on Photo Paper is very dark.. ideas?

[David Woodfall <dave dawoodfall net>]

On (18:50 23/09/12), David Woodfall <dave dawoodfall net> put forth the proposition:
> Hi, I've been printing out a lot of black and white photos on photo
> paper on a HP Photosmart 7510e.
>
> The printouts are very dark so I've had to boost the brightness levels
> in GIMP prior to printing. The problem is that this takes extra time
> and I also don't want to save these levels in the XCF file. I would
> say that (going by the Gamma Display Filter) the printouts are around
> 40% of the brightness they ought to be.
>
> My question is, does anyone else have this problem and what can be
> done about it? I've googled for an .ICC for my printer but it hasn't
> really helped, unless I'm setting it wrong.

Apologies for replying to my own post, but what seems to work is the
following (with black and white photos at least):

Set levels for black and white point
Set gamma display filter to 0.4
Adjust centre point on levels to 1.5 (or what brings it back to
normal)
Work on image
Print

I would still like to know if there is a better way to do this.
The less work that goes into a photo usually results in a better
quality print.