Digital BW, The Print

Hi Mark,

For color, I use PM5 to build custom profiles for the Epson driver.  
They work great and I see absolutely no need for a RIP for color.  In 
fact, I do a lot of press work at my job and use my 2200 with custom 
ICC profiles and the Epson driver for proofing.  My proofs are 
actually better than when using a number of RIPs.

For B&W, I am using IJC/OPM with the Epson UC inkset.  I started with 
the profiles supplied by Bowhaus, but made some changes.  My spectro 
just made it easier.  I chose to remove yellow inks from all profiles 
(except sepia ones) to reduce metamerism.  Yellow inks are the 
biggest offender, and removing them has given me fantastic results.  
I always create a series of 5 profiles for each paper - Cool, 
Selenium, Neutral, Warm and Sepia.  OPM (the printing part of the 
program) allows you to blend two profiles with a 0-100% slider so you 
can obtain an infinite range of subtle tones.  I have posted 2200 
profiles (for the Windows Version) on this site in the Files 
section.  Papers include Ep Enh Matte, Ep Velvet Fine Art, Boab 
Entrada (BW and Natural), Somerset Photo Enhanced Radiant white, 
Kirkland Glossy, Ep Prem Glossy, and Lexjet Professional Semi Matte.  
They can be downloaded and used directly if you have a 2200 and the 
windows version.  Here is the link.

http://tinyurl.com/6fksu

These are linearized for my printer, but I have shared them with 
others and they have had great results without making any changes.  
Linearization is easy with a densitometer, spectrophotometer or a 
scanner, if required.  I'd just print a test target with 
linearization and inspect the target to be sure there are no color 
crossovers, and that there is good separation between all 26 steps of 
the grayscale wedge.  If so, you are ready to roll.

I tend to build my 'neutral' profiles to accomodate the natural bias 
of the paper color.  So, my neutral profiles on a warm base paper, 
like Moab Entrada Natural, has a very minor amount of warmth to the 
grays, mirroring the natural paper white.  I just like the results 
better and it keeps the 'neutrals' more consistant from black to 
white.  Seems to look better to my eye and you don't get any jumps as 
you approach paper white.  A cold paper, like EpPremGlossy, may be 
slightly cool to work with the paper.  These are my preferences and 
can be adjusted easily by tweaking the profiles or blending.

I don't use ProfileMaker when adjusting profiles (I only use this to 
build monitor and color printing profiles).  I do use my Eye One 
spectrophotometer and MeasureTool from Gretag to read the data.  
MeasureTool is a free download.  A spectro is not absolutely 
required, but it does provide some extra accuracy and flexibility.  
You can get outstanding results without one.  I hope this provides 
the information you wanted.

My prints have awesome Dmax and are very neutral (when I want 
neutral).  I see no metamerism at all now that I have removed the 
yellow and the tonal gradations are silky smooth.  I may never move 
to Quad inks.  If I get a new 24" printer in the future for color 
work, I will probably try quads in my 2200.  

Contact me if you want additional information.

Lou

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Mark Carstens 
<mathdude5@c...> wrote:
> Lou,
> 
> I've been contemplating a new color printer that would enable me to 
> dedicate my 2200 to B&W/quad inks, and appreciate your insight 
about 
> IJC/OPM. It'd be nice to avoid the cost of the second printer and 
buy 
> the Bowhaus RIP instead. My question to you is whether you'd feel 
the 
> same about IJC/OPM even if you didn't write your own profiles? In 
> short, does using Profile Maker 5 just give you a broader paper 
> selection above and beyond what Bowhaus already provides or are you 
> actually improving on established profiles?
> 
> Thanks for your input.
> 
> Mark