Digital BW, The Print

> 
> One of my question is : how to upgrade the system/workflow? Some of 
> my prints are great, but many are disapointing from a technical point 
> of view (and do not match with what I had on my screen).


Jean-Marc,

it sounds like there may be other variables than just the driver/RIP if you are 
happy with some of your prints but not others.  In any case, matching your 
screen should be a simple matter of making a dot gain curve - which you can 
do by eye, if you are careful and use more than one print to match. That's 
assuming you are familiar with the other parts of color management in 
Photoshop.



> - should I consider the Piezography plugin obsolet (though it 
> includes many profiles for different papers and is compatible with 
> the MIS FS Neutral inks)?


If it works for you it is not obsolete "de facto".  You can check the accuracy of 
the profiles by printing a reference grayscale and plotting it out with a 
densitometer and excel. If it's nice and smooth, then you just need to tweak 
the dot gain curve for your screen preview. If not, then you need to make other 
choices. Just having lots of canned profiles doesn't mean they still apply to 
what you do - but they may.


 
> 
> -  is it worth to buy on ebay a densitometer (like the x rite 810 
> which is recommanded by many of you) and withe it create a dot gain 
> curve thanks to which screen images and final prints will match?


I'd say that it's overkill to use a densitometer for that. And even if you do, you 
should use an instrument that displays dot gain, i.e. a prepress densitometer, 
not one for photographic process control.

 
> 
> - shall I invest in one of these RIP softwares (and apparently a 
> densitometer like the x rite 810 is necessary, am I wrong?) and make 
> my own profiles (but I use always the same papers and the same inks)?


I'd vote "yes", if your present solution / workflow is not working. What you buy 
depends on the platform you are on.  IJC is about $200 and will make profiles, 
but will only run on Mac OS 9.  I don't know what Windows software allows 
profile making for desktops.


I hope this helps....


Antonis