Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "A. 
Huntley" <leicam6@a...> wrote:
> John,
> 
> I have been using the Harrington QuadToneRIP on a Mac (OS 
X / Gimp Print)
> with my Epson 1160 printer and "old" VM inks. Absolutely 
beautiful results.
> The only two things that I've really noticed compared to my 
former
> workflow--OS 9.2 and Roark curves--is the following:
> 
> 1. The range of "color" using the Harrington curves is not as 
wide as Paul's
> curves. That is, using Paul's curves one can produce very cold 
basically
> blue prints to very warm brown (the natural warm color of the 
pigment inks)
> prints, whereas the Harrington curves produce prints from 
what I'd call dead
> neutral (say half way between Paul's nc curve and the next 
warmer curve) to
> very warm brown (same as Paul's warmest curve.)
> 
> 2. Prints take about twice as long to print. I'm sure this has 
everything to
> do with the Gimp drivers and nothing to do with the 
QuadToneRIP, but just
> thought I'd mention it. If you think Epson printers are slow 
using Epson
> drivers, you ain't seen nuttin' yet! Speed of printing is not an 
issue for
> me, but certainly would be for anyone in a production (or close 
to it)
> environment. For example, printed an A3 size quad the other 
day...40
> minutes!
> 
> Realizing this info has nothing to do with the new VM 4.3 inks 
or the 7500,
> but hope you find it somewhat useful.
> 
> Alan Huntley
> 

Alan & John,

The range of color for the curves I did for the 1160 were just
based on what I liked for my VM-Sepia inks.  It would be quite
easy to do a couple more curves with significantly more
toner ink in them.   I'd be glad to email you some if you'd
like.

The speed of printing is totally a function of the gimp-print
drivers.   The drivers for the 1160 have 3 different modes for
1440x720 printing (Bidirectional, Unidirectional, and Highest
Quality).  I've mostly used HQ setting and it's probably the
slowest, I imagine bidirectional (the first one in the list)
would be faster.  Also there are quite a few 720x720 modes
which may give good enough results.

Since InkJet Control also uses gimp-print based drivers I
wonder if anyone using that could comment on speed of
printing there.

Roy