Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Gareth" 
<g.loc@o...> wrote:
> I have done same printing onto EAM using four permutations - NCA, 
> Colour Adjust-Auto, 1280 and 1290.  The results can be seen at 
> http://www.imagesoflife.co.uk/full-analysis.jpg 


I suffered - yet another -  crash on my Win2k system (HDD containing 
system and program files only)  last week and colleagues got me back 
on track.  However loads of files were lost/corrupted.  

{As an aside that may be useful to some, I like a print to have wider 
margins at the bottom than at the top and so use many custom print 
sizes.  I did not know where to find these settings and Epson UK 
advised that the "Custom Paper Size File extension … can be
found 
under the following path:
D:\Program files\EPSON\EPSON stylus ( printer model )
( Where D is the drive where Windows 2000 is installed ) 
An example of the file that may be within the folder is 
E_DD02JE.UCF. "] 

To get to the point!

As no printers were available and all had to be reinstalled,  I 
decided to load first one 1290 with UT2 on continuous flow using the 
conventional printer port so that I could subsequently load the other 
1290, which uses a continuous flow with colour inks, and not get the 
printers confused in Win 2k.

The 1280 on 1290 loading process failed to install many of files, 
many of which appear to be printer monitor GIF files.  Every time I 
switch the printer on it asks for "xxx..dll"'s and the rest,
so I 
cancel the operation.  Bit of a pain but the printer works.  Maybe 
they are files for the status monitor?

I used Pettit's 100 step wedge (modified so that all adjacent
tones 
are adjacent when printed).  They looked good to me although there 
are clear steps in two or three places, differing depending on the 
curves used.

I did some prints and am very pleased.  For a recent birthday, 
colleagues bought me book of photos taken by Edward List (Magnum) in 
the thirties of ancient Greek monuments.  They have a lovely burnt 
umber/chocolate hue.  I found the dark sepia on EEM too rich for my 
taste and just played about.  I have the curves as an action and 
found, after a bit of fiddling, that > edit > fade 50% was very close 
to what I wanted for one image, and this was even better when done on 
Photorag.  I also like the carbon curves, but am experiencing some 
roller issues. This may be because of using the printer port, which 
is painfully slow.

In conclusion I'm thrilled and eagerly await the promised 1290 
curves, Paul, when you have time, or, alternatively, advice on how to 
have two 1290 printers operating using USB through the same hub as 
before, but one using the 1280 and the other the 1290 printer systems.

Cheers,

Colin