Digital BW, The Print

"just so their printer can produce a half-decent black-and-white" -- 

That statement is off-base. The whole point of the Epson RIP is to 
allow graphic designers (not photographers) to print brochure proofs 
and things like this onto their Epson to show their clients how the 
finished piece might look after the layout goes to press. In order to 
satisfy this requirement, the RIP needs to accept PostScript code 
from programs like QuarkXPress and PageMaker (page layout programs), 
while also feeding color schemes to the printer which will convince 
the 2200 to mimic the color produced on a four-color offset press. 
You are not even supposed to use the RIP from Photoshop (says so in 
the documentation), although this rule has been shown to be 
breakable. If the RIP produces better b&w (and I think it does, using 
the right workflow), it's probably a side effect of mimicking a four-
color press. It is not something that Epson designed for us b&w 
photographers -- please don't confuse it for that, because it offends 
those of us who worked at Quark, Inc., as a technical writer for 
years and years writing about RIPs and such!

Steve Gray


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Peter Nelson 
<peter@s...>" <peter@s...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Austin 
> Franklin" <darkroom@i...> wrote:
> 
> This is the same company that released a 
> graybalancing program in some markets and not others for
> the same printer, and the same company that charges an
> extra $200 (for their RIP) just so their printer can 
> produce a half-decent black-and-white print.