Digital BW, The Print

Martin,


I really think the only reason that Inkjetmall offered the free 
profiles was to generate interest in the ink prior to developing the 
software that they intended to sell. Some manufacturers will offer 
profiles usually with their brand of paper along with the ink, but 
most choose not to for a good reason. Many potential buyers do not 
yet understand how to utilize and apply the profiles which results in 
great expense to support the profiles. The Enhanced Generations and 
MIS archival inks have done exceptionally well even though there are 
no profiles available.

Curves are a whole different ball of wax, even Cone makes you pay for 
them with the Piezo B/W software. Paul Roark has probably done more 
than anyone out there to help promote and generate interest in a 
product that he does not even sell. I think that maybe with the 
quads, many manufacturers treat the inks as paints if you will, 
allowing the artist to utilize them in the way that they see fit. The 
quad market is still relatively small and the attitude is that the 
users that are interested are much more advanced.

There are a few companies that sell ink and paper that will offer 
generic curves just to get someone interested in the products. I 
guess that is just the nature of the market so to speak. I believe 
that most companies will shy away from offering free curves, etc... 
until the "novice" user can utilize them with little to no problems. 
The vast majority of desktop users either do not have the tools, 
time, or inclination to want to go that deep. Once there is an easier 
way, maybe even at the O/S level, more interest will be shown by the 
manufacturers.

Terry

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Martin Wesley" 
<mwesley250@e...> wrote:
> Terry,
> 
> Thanks for all the information. It sounds like you have a great 
deal 
> of experience in the area.
> 
> One of the biggest issues it that so many of these quad inks are 
> being marketed for printers that are no longer in production. Even 
> the 3000 is now gone. If they really want to sell their inks they 
> need to provide a path that includes printers that are readily 
> available.
> 
> They also need to provide some basic software even if it is just 
some 
> RGB curves to use with the Epson driver. Do they honestly think 
there 
> is some mass market out here that will buy inks they have to 
develop 
> their own profiles for? 
> 
> At least ConeTech realized this part of the equation and provided 
> customer support as well. They still offer the most comfortable 
path 
> for people with little or no experience.
> 
> Martin Wesley