Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "eleanor77027 
<elliebrown@a...>" <elliebrown@a...> wrote:
> I agree that the IP prints have a certain smoothness about them. 
> However with that said, why is their dither so course?  I am making
> prints anywhere from 5X7 to 13X19 with my 2200 and believe me, on 
the
> smaller sized prints the courseness is evident.  I can make a small
> print using the epson driver at 2880 and in my experience, the IP
> 2880 still doesn't match the creamy smoothness of the dither of the
> epson.  Since we are paying so much for a driver only (no extras)
> from IP, why shouldn't we expect a dither as smooth as that of the
> epson driver to compliment those IP smooth tonal transitions?  Are
> these two qualities incompatible? (I am printing from OS 10.2)
> eleanor brown

That's what I'm guessing (your last statement re: tonal transitons). 
The one area where the Epson driver bursts into the ring like a car 
full of clowns is it's underwhelming ability to keep tones/hue correct 
across the range. It's riding herd on a lot of colored chambers after 
all.

If so then the compromise would be between dot smoothness vs 
(continual) tonal smoothness. Or another way: sneaking in a bit of 
quasi-halftoning, actually randomized dots, gives more tonal control 
then using complete continous tone. But I'm no expert on this stuff- 
ask me about clogs maybe<g>.

Btw, sorry I didn't mention it before: I'm Win2000 SP3, using an 
updated IP5 driver e-mailed to me 1/10/03...
Jim H.