Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message -----
From: "craygc" <craygc@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 8:21 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] At the risk of asking an old question...


> Two questions actually...
>
> The first is, what are the main benefits/disadvantages in the choices
> between PiezoTone CIS and MIS CFS systems for printing digital B&W?
> Views, recommendations, things to look out for, etc.
>
> The second, as the PiezoTone systems use their own custom print
> drivers, is there any knowledge on timelines for releasing them for
> the Mac OS-X operating system.
>
 Craig,

I wish it was that simple. Here are some points to consider.

The CIS and CFS units are independent of and interchangeable with any of the
inks and software. I personally think the CIS is a nicer and easier to use
system than the MIS CFS but the MIS product is cheaper and it works. There
are other continuous inking systems available, too.

The PiezoBW plugin was developed by Sundance/R9 and sold exclusively by
inkjetmall/ConeTech for two years. The companies have parted ways and are
selling the software separately. You can buy R9's "IMAGE EXPORT BW" plugin
which is the same as the Piezo plugin. However on their website,
http://www.bwguys.com/, they say, "The Macintosh\ufffd version of Image Export BW
runs under Photoshop\ufffd versions 5 and higher. Mac OS versions 8.5 to 10.2 are
supported" I am not a Mac user but I believe that is the most recent version
of the OS. So the R9 version of the plugin may be more up to date than what
is being sold at inkjetmall. The price is the same at both places. At this
point in time I would buy it from R9 since you would be in line for future
upgrades and I suspect that inkjetmall will completely part company with
Sundance/R9 as soon as they have another software alternative on line.

The Piezo/R9 plugin with it's paper profiles is designed for the ink
densities of the original Piezo/Sundance inks and the MIS Full Spectrum inks
which were designed as a clone of the Piezo inks. The PiezoTone inks on the
other hand have slightly different densities and do not work quite as
smoothly with the plugin as the original inks. Some people are reporting
good results and others not so good, so that question is up in the air at
the moment.

You have asked your questions at a moment when a lot of things are up in the
air with grayscale inks and software and we are all eagerly watching to see
where they will land.

I have probably added to your confusion but keep asking questions and
hopefully things will get clearer.

Martin Wesley

http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html