Digital BW, The Print

On Friday, January 17, 2003, at 05:09  PM, eleanor77027 
<elliebrown@...> wrote:

> so far I have been disappointed in image print for the 2200.
> for $500 bucks I expected a finer dither at 1440 and at least some
> color controls ... I think their 1440 is a joke ... and their
> 2880 High speed is not great either ... both dither patterns are
> coarser that the standard 2200 epson 1440 (high speed off) driver

Eleanor,

For what it's worth, I'm using IP on Mac OS X with a 7600 using 
UltraChrome inks (Matte Black) -- don't know how my observations will 
map to your experience on the 2200, but anyways...

I too agree that I expected more from the dither, after hearing and 
reading rave review feedback about how superior it was to any others 
available. It is definitely more coarse than the Epson driver (OS 9 
only) at 1440 (unidirectional/high speed off). At first, I was really 
put off by how much more coarse the dither was -- my expectations were 
really high.

However, sheer persistence and closer inspection has led me to value 
the following from this RIP, and I would like to know if you and/or 
others are seeing similar results:

1) Even though the dither is more coarse, the finished print has a 
certain overall smoothness about it that I find pleasing in some way 
that I can't quite describe.

2) Even though the dither is more coarse, the image detail is far 
superior. Fine details, curves, diagonal lines, and specular highlights 
all reproduce much more cleanly than with the Epson driver -- none of 
the "jaggies" and color fringing on high-contrast edges that plague 
Epson driver prints.

3) Much more color manageable. I generate my own custom ICC profiles, 
and so far (one paper on the 7600 as a pilot, a bunch more in progress 
as I write this) the finished results are definitely better than with 
the profiles I generated using the Epson driver.

4) Real grayscale! The special grayscale mode that IP brings to the 
7600 (& 2200??), with UltraChrome ink, renders a neutrality to the 
entire gray ramp that is just not possible with the Epson driver, even 
with my own ICC profiles (which are good profiles). It was this element 
alone that encouraged me to buy IP for my 7600, and so far I'm very 
pleased with the results. Now if I can just get ColorByte Software to 
generate their special Grayscale profiles for the rest of the media 
that I use...

All is not perfect, and I am working with ColorByte to work through 
some issues I am having. Even though I do agree with you about the 
coarseness of the dither, I do not find it so objectionable, especially 
in view of these other advantages.

Are others seeing similar things? Am I an island?

/eddie