Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul Roark" <paul.roark@v...> 
wrote:
> Nick,
> 
> >... UT inkset for my 1160, ... OS X driver, ... posterization 
> 
> >of the curve applied file, although obviously not in color.
> 
> Be sure the file had been converted to grayscale at some point to get rid of
> any residual color that may have been there if the original file was color.

The file was originally 8bit GS, converted to RGB for printing, then the curve applied. At 
this point the file turned bright red and green, and I printed it that way. I assume this is 
how it is supposed to look.

> >Why does the driver not show the usual Epson settings?
> 
> It sounds like this might be a driver that was included on the OS disc.  I'm
> not a Mac user, but with XP the disc has lots of drivers for printers, but
> they are not the same as the full Epson drivers.  You need the full driver
> from Epson.

No, I d'loaded the driver directly from Epson, and it's their only OS X version. What's weird 
is that it looks nothing like an Epson driver, and has none of the usual settings. No 
"Speed-Quality", no PhotoEnhance, no "High-Speed", no "Color-Black", no "microweave", 
no "Flip Horozontal", and the choice of papers and dithering algorithms looks exactly like 
those contained in the QTRgui, which I assumed were a std set from GIMP Print. Oh yes, 
under paper you can choose Ilford Heavy Paper - I've never seen Epson tout an Ilford 
product! And under Ink Type, I can select Four Color Std, Three Color Composite, or 
Quadtone. I've never seen Epson officially support Quadtone either.

OK, so after a little more research, I think I have an answer. I found a newer driver on 
Epson's Eurpoean website, but it has the same behaviour as the US driver. I suspect that 
there is no OS X driver for the 1160, that the plug-in is a bare bones driver just to get OS 
X to recognize the 1160, and then it relies on the underlying CUPS/GIMP Print technology.

That said, I'm going to have to print under OS9 (no big deal, I can hook the 1160 up to 
another machine), or I'm going to have to use the QTR.