Digital BW, The Print

Diana,

I have discovered that some images look sharpest at 720 dpi when printed 
with OPM  on the 2200. If you open your image in Photoshop and check the 
resolution it should read 720 dpi. If not, you can res it up using bicubic 
interpolation. Then try printing again.  

This may or may not make a big difference in your print depending on how 
close you were to 720 dpi before you resed up.  It also depends on what kind 
of image it is - how grainy, how sharp, if it has sharp diagonals... etc.
Also, if you still see problems, it's worth  setting the image to 16 bits and 
comparing prints.  

Testing tip:you can crop a small area where a problem shows up and print it 
over and over on the same sheet with different settings. You set the x,y 
positions in OPM to avoid overlaps.

Just to be clear about the 720dpi "preference": It is unrelated to the amount of 
information a scan or digital camera file contains; it has to do with matching  
pixels-to-dots and driving the printer at its native hardware resolution. The 
Epson driver (for the 2200 at least) does this interpolation internally, so no 
matter what res you throw at it, the image will be made to look its "best" as far 
as the printer goes.

I am very interested in your comparisons between Roy's RIP and OPM - 
especially since they share some DNA between them ! (and didn't that 
originate at MIT?....) The tonal gradations in OPM are mostly the result of a 
particular profile and whether your particular system performs as well as mine 
(since I made the first 2200 profiles).
 In theory, you are supposed to have IJC and be able to tweak the profiles 
both for color and for smoothness. This system is really aimed at putting an 
end to canned profiles of any kind (including its own) ! 

As we discuss this further, it would help if you mentioned your operating 
system and other details of your setup.

If you are experiencing problems with the 2200, you may want to write to 
bowhaus and see if they will let you try the current beta which has some fixes 
for the 2200. Their email for OPM / IJC is: software@...

Antonis


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Diana Park 
<dip@m...> wrote:
> Antonis,
> 
> I've just started experimenting with OPM on my 2200 and I'm not sure 
> what you meant below - should the file actually be set to 720 dpi or 
> should the printer output be set to 720 (as opposed to 1440 or 2880)? 
> I haven't purchased IJC so I can't control the curves supplied with 
> OPM but I do like the Blender option where I can mix warm and cool 
> curves. I've found 70% warm and 30% cool to give a nice neutral (to 
> my eye) tone.
> 
> I've also FINALLY successfully installed Roy Harrington's QuadToneRIP 
> (many thanks Roy for all your troubleshooting help!) and while his 
> neutral curve is warmer than the above mix in OPM, the tonal 
> gradations seem smoother. Now for some curve tweaking!
> 
> Diana Park
> dip@M...
>