Digital BW, The Print

Tom,

The control offered by IJC/OPM does not require fiddling and "messing with 
stuff." Building the "ink recipes" is simplicity itself, though, for best 
results, a densitometer or spectrophotometer is required. A new user will 
probably need about a 1/2 hour to build their first neutral profile. From 
here, a family of curves can be easily and quickly built. An experienced, 
more advanced user like Lou Dina, could probably build an entire family of 
curves in about 10 - 15 minutes.

Therefore, you really don't have to "tinker" if you don't want to. But, if 
you're so inclined to push the envelope as far as it can go, squeeze out 
that last ounce of quality, etc, IJC is the ultimate tool. Imagine being 
able to tweak the black ink limit so that the printer delivers the maximum 
ink your paper can hold to nail dMax? Imagine being able to introduce a 
subtle selenium/cool look in the shadows with a slight hint of warmth to the 
high end? I know IP 6.0's tint picker is reportedly supposed to allow this 
type of "split" toning, but, IMO, it's not well implemented.

Do you see any metamerism in your B&W prints? Though IP controls this aspect 
very well, some IP users still report seeing metamerism in their prints. 
What if you built a family of profiles without using the yellow ink at all! 
Yellow being generally acknowledged as the cause for metamerism when using a 
color inkset to print B&W. With IJC, you can easily build such a family of 
profiles! BO printing? How about building a profile using mk and lk, only? 
Don't like the warm look when using only the UC black ink, introduce some 
magenta/light magenta or the cyans to adjust.

If I sound like I'm defending IJC/OPM, it's because I am. Bowhaus and Joe 
are not particularly vocal and he doesn't tend to "blow his own horn." That 
said, IMO this product deserves the attention of any serious B&W digital 
printer. Believe me I fussed for years starting with blending my own inks 
and using transfer functions with the Epson driver through to MIS inks and 
Paul's curves. I finally scraped it all for IP because I, too, wanted a 
simple "out of the box" solution. I was tired of messing around! For about 1 
1/2 years I was a stance advocate of IP for B&W printing; I still use it for 
color. I knew of IJC/OPM on the Mac side for some time, but wasn't 
interested in jumping into that endless search, once again, for the "holy 
grail." But, time marches on and I began to tire of some things I began to 
see as deficiencies with IP. I ordered IJC/OPM with some trepidation because 
I'm not used to buying software without kicking the tires, first. No need to 
worry, though. This product has been one of my best digital purchases.

I know from reading your posts for quite some time, now, that you're an 
experienced, knowledgeable photographer. I'm sure you would agree that some 
shoot 35mm because it's easy, and some lug 50-60 lbs of equipment into the 
field (8x10.) Large format users are not concerned with a little work. They 
shoot this format because there is nothing out there that can compare! Okay, 
the higher end Better Light scanning backs probably come pretty close, but 
all that equipment ain't light, either! I view IP as 35mm and IJC/OPM as 
8x10. If you want the best, you gotta be willing to endure some pain. As 
always, though, the standard caveat...YMMV.

Regards,
Alan Huntley

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Baker" <tbaker1328@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] IJC/OPM vx. IP



I don't really care about control.  Control implies that I have to mess with 
stuff.  I just care about results.  IP is a 'control-les' environment that 
gives great results.  I like it.  However, it's comming clear that the 
IJC/OPM will produce visually better b&w with my current printer/ink, 
especially at the low end of the scale.  And that's important to me.  So, if 
I have to give up some convenience to get better results, so be it.  And, 
the price certainly seems to be right.

Tom Baker




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




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