Digital BW, The Print

>>  I am a fairly new convert to digital photography and rather
>>  inexperienced with computers in general.  From this and other forums
>>  I see that the problems I'm having printing b&w (with the Epson 2200)
>>  are not uncommon, ie: having a color-cast to the prints. I've
>>  downloaded QuadToneRIP/QTR, but even with the kind suggestions of
>>  some members of this and other forums, have not been able to use it.
>>  My question is, is the Mac system significantly easier to use - more
>>  user friendly - than the PC?  Might I have better luck with QuadTone
>>  on it?  If so, it might be worthwhile to pick up a used Mac CPU and
>>  use it only for photography, keeping the PC for the internet, etc. 
>>  Any thoughts?  Thanks,  Edward 

Buying an older mac for use as a print engine is eminently practical. You
can get one on ebay for a reasonable price. If you go that way be sure to
get a machine that has usb ports built in otherwise it won't be able to run
the newest version of OS X. You might have to pick up a copy of OS X
separately but that won't add a lot to the total price.

QTR isn't particularly fast and neither is the 2200 so speed of the cpu is
not a big deal if you use it primarily as a print engine. It is a simple
matter to transfer images either via a home network or using one of the many
usb "thumb" drives such as Sandisk's Cruzer mini. One slick thing about the
two machine approach is that you can start the Mac printing and then get
back to the PC for working on a different image or what ever.

I went this route for about a year and became so fond of the Mac that I
ended up buying a more capable machine and use it for all of my graphics
work.

Roger


-- 
Roger L Sopher
Rlsopher@...
http://deCorrales.com