Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message -----
From: <jimhayes@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2002 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Colorbyte and Ink questions


>
> Well, okay maybe, but what magnification are you looking at them with?
> Just eyeballing Paul's enhanced step wedge, the 5% to 0%k look great
> with my 2200 and IP5...

I'm looking at it with no additional magnification.  Granted though, my nose
is about 12 inches from the print.  When printing Paul's step wedge with the
Epson driver, I can see no dots in the highlights, but even using the gray
balancer, I get noticable metamerism for B&W prints.  With IP, even though I
notice more dots in the highlights, I didn't mean to imply it was a
show-stopper.  It is very good, and I'm very happy with the neutral prints
that exhibit no noticeable metamerism.  If there were septone gray inks
available for the 2200, or even some kind of color/gray hybrid ink set, I
think the 2200 would make the ultimate B&W desktop machine.  I asked
colorbyte about support for 3rd party inks and the answer I got from Daniel
in tech support was:

# We do plan to keep updating our support for the quadtones and MIS,
although
# its tough to say positively which ones and when.  As they come out, we
# usually fit them into our schedule as soon as possible.

> I am currently investigating an intermitant banding problem with the
> 2200, but I'm finding that it doesn't show up very often- and
> Colorbyte folks say I probably have a defective printer.

That's interesting.  There was only once I noticed banding with my 2200 and
that was immediately after I switched from matte black to photo black.
After a second print, it went away and hasn't come back.

I don't print with photo black anymore.  The bronzing I saw on the premium
lustre paper was very annoying.

>
> OTOH, tech support is great. They need to update their manual though,
> adding tricks like how to REALLY set up a firewire printer in Win2000.
> What is stated now on website is incorrect.

Yes, I had problems with both USB and Firewire initially.  I was following
their instructions.  Another customer of theirs saw my post and helped me
get it installed properly.  Their tech support has been really helpful
though for other issues I had.  They even sent me the unfinished section on
the 2200 from the new manual.  Although, they claimed the new manual would
be done in about a week and they'd send it to me.  That was Dec. 5 and I
haven't heard from them.

> John at colorbyte told me after the first purchase, no maintainance
> agreements for the 2200 could be bought, even for another $500. 7600
> is another story. Seems odd though- you'd think they wouldn't mind
> taking our money...maybe I heard it wrong.

Yes, that does seem odd.  Jane was the one that told me about the
maintenance at $495 a year.  I hope they're not going to make us pay another
$500 once they finish rewriting the software.

> John at Colorbyte told me even after 90 days runs out, I could always
> send in a target to get a new paper profiled. No time limit on this
> service- and it is planned to be free.

That's good to know.  Again, I got a slightly different story from Jane.
John Pannozzo is the president though, so his answers are probably more
accurate.  In fact, Daniel in tech support told me, "Technically, yes, the
support contracts are per printer.  I don't set the prices, but the man to
talk to (or email) here is John Pannozzo about pricing issues
(johnp@...)."

> Well I learn fast, being one of those that actually WILL read a 600
> page manual (no IP5 manual is not that long<g>) and snarf it down. I
> would phrase it as "too many features built in". You can just bypass a
> lot of stuff. I was up and running in two days, not counting firewire
> problems. I was surprised to find that the most difficult part of the
> interface was determining where to place image in the printing field
> displayed, as it automatically adds borders to edge (left and right
> edge 1/8 inch, top edge 3/16 inch for letter sized). So There's some
> fractional math to go through.

Yes, the assymetrical borders threw me initially as well.  The biggest
problems I had were:
1. USB and Firewire installation.  -- I was following the instructions and
they didn't work.
2. Using a gray profile with the wrong inkset selected.  -- The
documentation made no mention of inksets for the 2200, and by using the
wrong one, my step wedges were coming out red!
3. When you want to sheet feed paper, you have to check the box which wasn't
on by default or you get out of paper errors.  The Epson driver just assumed
you were sheet feeding unless you told it you weren't.
4. Using a color correction tool in IP and having it switch silently to DEMO
mode.

> The most important part of IP5 is getting the color management
> settings right.

I agree.  I followed their documentation closely on this, but unless you use
an inkset compatible with the profile you've selected, you get weird results
like red ink where it should be paper white.  One email from colorbyte with
an explanation of their ink settings and their purpose was all it took to
clarify this.

> And expect to find strange bugs here and there.I tried a step and
> repeat, couldn't get image dupes to show up on monitor, so I just
> printed- and it printed "white" no ink) where  stepped images "were".
> I need to read that part of manual again.

I never got step and repeat to work either.  I figured it was another one of
those features that was not supported in the desktop version.  On second
though though, if that were the case, it would work, but would stamp DEMO on
the prints.  Have you talked to their tech support on this yet?  I also
haven't tried using templates or AutoPrint yet, so I have no idea what
surprises await me there.

> Hear hear. I think $300 might be reasonable. OR, extend the warranty
> out to 1 year. Oh well, it IS a good product.

I agree.  It is a good product that could be better, and it's priced wrong.