Digital BW, The Print

Chatzebussi -

The IP 5.5 lite is $495 and it doesn't have a very user friendly 
upgrade policy or maintainence (i.e. they have it but it is very 
expensive). Their new documentation is pretty good and there is a 
yahoo group that is very supportive and can help you with almost any 
problem. 

The Epson RIP was wildly anticpated and equally disappointing by 
report of the early adopters (no updgrade that I know of) and 
probably isn't worth the $200.

There is a new rip that sounds great called Pixelpicasso sold by 
www.bwguys.com but it isn't for sale yet in the 2200 flavor and the 
pricing for the 2200 isn't yet known (the wide format version is 
$1500).

Image Print is a little clunky on the interface side, but once you 
get used to it, it does make outstanding prints, and it's available 
today.

The only other suggestion I have for windows users is to use 
pictorico paper and use the profiles and workflow that they have 
created and are available for free downloading on their site. I tried 
these while I was waiting for my copy of IP to arrive and I must say 
they were pretty darn good (if you work with them for a while you can 
most likely make excellent prints ...on thier paper).

The advantage of IP and PP is that they have lots of profiles (more 
than 200 with IP and PP says they will have more than 50)...both also 
are great for color (though the Epson driver seems to be pretty good 
for color, too).

You've seen the other posts on a couple of really good MAC 
solutions...this is the first time in my life I have considered 
getting a MAC (but sanity finally prevailed <g>...the OPM runs on OS9 
(yuk) and the quad rip written by Roy is )OSX (and also free).

You can almost buy a used mac for the price of these rips...that 
really got me thinking <g>. But I don't want to be messing around 
with 2 operating systems, life is complex enough and I have too much 
other software that is windows only, I'd wind up psycho...

Hope this helps,

Tom O'Connell


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "chatzebussi" 
<chatzebussi@y...> wrote:
> Hi out there
> 
> So many RIPS around now, one could easily get confused. Most of them
> far too expensive for the
> avarage black-and-white amateur though - others not yet ready for 
the
> PC-Platform... Hélas!
> 
> But there is an EPSON RIP around. First made available for the EPSON
> 2200, later for the EPSON 2100. I take it that it is the same piece 
of
> software.
> 
> looking at the pictures here
> 
> http://studio-nelson.com/inkjet/bw22003.htm
> 
> I would have thought that it isn't doing too badly. I am considering
> buying it as it is rather modestly priced. Any advice? Any serious
> drawbacks? I am a bit suspicious as this RIP doesn't seem to belong 
to
> the favorites among the members of this group. In fact it is hardly
> ever mentioned.
> 
> Thanks for replying and your info
> 
> Chatzebussi