Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message -----
From: <jharvey@...>
> OK, Some of you have had experience with the Colorbyte software RIP.
> At this point, what do you think its value is for B&W printing with
> the New Epson color Inks as well as the Inks available through MIS,
> Jon Cone, Etc..Is it Definately worth the money?

I've been happy with ImagePrint (IP) for my 2200 simply because it's given
me neutral B&W prints with no noticeable metamerism.  But the prints don't
compare to piezography.  The 2200 through IP looks good, but there are more
noticeable dots in the highlights than what you can do with a quadtone ink
set.

What I'm not happy about is the price.  For desktop printers it's $500 for a
single printer.  To add another desktop, I believe they quoted me an
additional $375.  That gets you 90 days of support and upgrades from them.
It's an additional $500 every year after for support and upgrades, and I
believe the maintenance price is per printer as well!  And, you have to stay
current with your maintenance contract to take advantage of their paper
profiling service.

I think IP would probably perform very well with quadtone inks.  In fact, if
money grew on trees, I'd buy an additional IP license for a 1280 and use it
with the MIS FS or VM inks.  But, I'm not going to put any more money into
this since this is just my hobby.  It's not my profession.

If you can hold off until March, Jon Cone is going to announce new software
for his Piezotone inks at PMA.  I'm curious to see if this will be a custom
version of IP for use with his inks only.  I know he thinks highly of the
software.

If you've never used IP before, be prepared for a sharp learning curve.
There are many aspects of the user interface that are non-intuitive, and
they haven't updated their documentation to include the 2200 yet which
caused me a lot of grief immediately after I installed it.  I don't know if
it's only the 2200 that was left out or if there are other printers not
mentioned in the documentation.  Also, with the desktop "version", don't try
to use any of the color correction tools even though they are active and
appear to work.  It will -- without informing you -- switch into "demo mode"
and you'll only know this once you print and see the word DEMO stamped
across your images.

I wish I could say it is definitely worth the money, but I can't.  I feel
like I just paid 1st class prices for a coach seat, and I'm locked into that
price if I want to book a return flight.  I suspect they're alienating a lot
of potential users off the bat with their pricing and maintenance policy.

I recommend you get the demo version and try it for yourself before you buy.
Call them on the phone to order it though.  I've had problems getting email
through to their tech support in the past, so I recommend dealing with them
over the phone.

I think if ColorByte improved the user interface and brought the pricing
back down to earth, they'd have a fantastic product and would make more
money because more people would buy it.

--Tom