Digital BW, The Print

Thanks for your input.
As I said I'm a newbie in RIPs (as in many other fields BTW).

To John regarding QTR, I use it (very happily) on a 1290-Piezo and I 
hope Roy will soon support the 4800. If not at least I can use the BW 
ICC. It's a matter of testing against ABW. I suspect 2400/4800 and up 
lay down some color inks when in ABW ; I'm not yet sure and I'm going 
to an Epson so-called training session in 10 days : since it will be 
Epson product demo session, I'll find out.

I believe my understanding of a RIP ranks from minimal to unexisting.

As a starting point, I'm disappointed somehow with the Pulse soft : I 
did not realise that it would not linearise or more precisely setting 
ink limit : I have fine/acceptable colors on a 1800 but terrible 
shadows overloaded with ink specially on EEM.

The X-rite support informed me that upgrading to Monaco Profiler will 
linearise the printer and solve the ink limit issue : I just think 
there's a misunderstanding there. I can't imagine a profile limiting 
ink. It seems I'd be supposed to get addtional controls of the Black 
generation... but I doubt on ink limit control : I may well be wrong 
here. I need to dig a bit more unless you have some advise on a more 
powerful (an awfully expensive) profiler as a solution. 

Since I' have been using QTR, I'm basically seeking something 
comparable for color worklow with possibly some additional features. 
Meaning I'd like to be able to set ink limit, linearise the channels, 
improve dithering and/or interpolation, and then of course produce 
more accurate color profiles.

How extravagant are these expectations for a non-pro : I can't 
assess. But if I'm to get a 4800 this is the kind of issues I 
currently considering.

I took a look at Colorburst (quite quickly the Pro version since it 
includes CMYK profiling capacity) and this seemed to offer these 
features for what I assume to be a fair price though it remains a 
considerable apount of $ and though it will not support the small 
1800 but I could eventually dedicate it to only gloss "small" prints 
since I'm happy with both rendering and profiling ability on glossy 
papers. If there's a comprehensive RIP that would drive both the 1800 
and 4800 I'd be VERY happy.

A final thought is about the learning curve to properly use a RIP : 
is this realistic for a simple amateur.

This is where I am : I believe I started to post too early before 
digging a bit more for info on the web and from suppliers.

If you feel like adding comments, I'd be grateful while I'll 
perfectly understand a get-more-basic-info-before-posting reply (or 
no reply).

Thanks again for your initial help.

Olivier