Digital BW, The Print

> Does OPM yield as good results as the others?
> 
> The problem is that I have heard that neither of these would give me 
> the "grainless" dotless prints I have been getting with the R9 
> (Sundance) software. Is it true that the dotlessness in OPM only 
> applies to the highlights? 


Bob,

if by "dots" you mean printer dots (as opposed to dither), these
are not so much a function of the software as they are a function
of (a) the size of dot the printer puts down, (b) how many shades
of gray you use and (c) how your inks are partitioned across the
grayscale.

StudioPrint and IJC/OPM will both allow you to partition inks to your
liking. But if you are using a 7500 which - relative to today's models -
puts down rather big dots, you'll need all the help you can get. By
cutting out 2 nozzles and working with 4, you won't get as dotless
a print as using 6. Software won't matter in this regard.

The smoothest print out of those machines comes from doubling up
the Cyan and Magenta positions by using the same ink in the
Light C and Light M. If you make a  good profile with either software,
you'll get as dotless a print as that generation of Epsons are capable of. 
Perhaps in larger sizes, you won't be able to tell the difference
between using 4 and 6 nozzles. But making the right profile
is crucial either way to make sure you hide the dots as best
you can. Either software that you are considering will give you that
control. 

> 
> I wonder if anyone has had the opportunity to compare R9 to 
> OpenPrintmaker and StudioPrint in terms of overall quality, tonal 
> range and dotlessness. (and what about Cone software?)

I only used the plug in (pre-R9) with an 1160 and remember getting
very good results. However, when I moved to the 1280, I got pretty
bad banding, due to the poor profiles supplied at the time. The 
experience convinced me to never again use canned profiles.
To answer your question, while I haven't compared R9 to either
SP or OPM, I consider both of these superior because they
allow custom profiling.

I have used the IJC/OPM solution on the mac for the last few years
and have never had problems with banding or dots across a wide
range of printers including a 7000 and a 9500. In those large formats
I use the Piezotone inks loaded as would have been specified for
the R9 or StudioPrint, i.e. M=LM and C=LC. 

As for the choice between StudioPrint and IJC....    as you know,
SP costs a whole bunch and forces you to use a Windows box.
 IJC otoh, because it doesn't have the features of a full
RIP and doesn't support color, costs a lot less. It also runs under Mac OS X
as well as Windows. Currently, the Windows version of IJC has a lot
more features than the Mac version, but they are mostly there for
convenience - the print quality is the same.

Antonis