Digital BW, The Print

Since I was a beta tester for the PrintFixPRO (PFP)package, a couple of 
people from this e-list have asked about how easy it is, how well it 
functions, etc. I'll try to get back to each person individually, but since 
there has been some discussion on the list about PFP, I thought the group 
might be interested in one person's initial experience with an 
off-the-shelf copy. What follows is mostly a copy of a note I posted to 
another forum, relating my early experience.
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My sample of the Epson R1800 doesn't produce good prints (either colro or 
B&W) using the off-the-shelf Epson profiles, even the "premium" profiles 
downloaded from the Epson site. When printing, I look for problems, obsess 
over them, and I tend to fiddle around endlessly, seeing if I can get a 
better result. To help my R1800 along (a lot!), I've bought a couple of 
custom profiles from www.cathysprofiles.com and they are excellent. prints 
using Cathy Stratton's custom profiles match the monitor exactly.

A couple of days ago I received my pre-ordered copy of 
DataColor/Colorvision's new PFP program. This morning I finally got my 
first chance to make a custom printer profile with it. First try, the 
profile produced prints which are essentially an exact match to the 
monitor's appearance. To my pleasant surprise, the custom printer profile 
produced by PrintFixPRO was every bit as good as the profiles I've 
purchased from cathysprofiles.com.

Especially as a first time user, I was amazed this program's performance. 
In the past I've used other profiling programs, but none of them was nearly 
as easy to use as this one. The process of reading the target patches (this 
was the 225 patch target) took me 15 minutes, because it was my first 
time.  I'm guessing that future target readings will take closer to 10-12 
minutes.

I had planned to use the profile I made this morning as a "practice run" 
and then make my *real* profile using the 729 patch target. But right now I 
can't see how the 729 patch target would improve on the results I got from 
the 225 patch one.

[Specifically regarding B&W - since I wrote the original post to another 
forum, I've converted several more color images to B&W using the Channel 
Mixer procedure, toned them neutral or minimally warm, and printed them 
using the PFP printer profile. I can't say whether a RIP would do a better 
job in my hands, but the BW prints I've made are really excellent. These 
are on Epson Enhanced Matte. There's no appreciable metamerism (none I can 
see) under mixed daylight, 6500 Ott light, or incandescent light. (None, 
that is, other than the slight differential in appearance expected when 
viewing prints under a 6500 light, as opposed to viewing under the very 
warm incandescent light.) There is no leakage of color into any part of any 
of the B&W images printed.]

Disclaimer - no connection with Datacolor/Colorvision at all, except as a 
satisfied *paying* customer. Last thing: I've used other Colorvision 
products in the past, but this one beats them all by a wide margin.

Bill Hansen