Digital BW, The Print

Edward,

Only worth one cent, I'm afraid!   ;)

Aren't you're making the same assumption as Ginny - that ALL printers and 
drivers only handle 8bit files, downsampling 16bit files to 8bit before 
processing them?

AFAIK some newer printers and printer drivers can handle 16bit files, so one 
of those printers might 'care' whether the image is in 16bit or 8bit, and 
might produce better prints with a 16bit file.

Here's a quote from Canon about their their Photoshop plugin for their new 
iPF5000 pigment ink printer:-

"This application was designed to enable direct printing of 16 -bit RGB 
images directly from Adobe\ufffd Photoshop 6, 7, CS and CS2. This plug-in is a 
true export module that bypasses the print driver on Windows and Macintosh 
computers. The module was designed to be an integral part of a 
photographer's 16-bit workflow without compromising image quality. The 
Plug-in facilitates the printing of 16-bit images by processing the data 
outside the conventional driver and sending the data directly from Photoshop 
to the printer, dramatically increasing gradations and as a result, overall 
image quality. "

Some other 3rd-party drivers for Epsons also process in 16bit, I believe. So 
you would need to compare 16bit and 8bit prints from 16bit-capable printers, 
not just from 8bit printers.

Bob Frost.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Edward Wiseman" <pahts@...>

.As for printing out this "final" image file, the printer
itself cares not whether the image is 16 or 8 bits,

Just my 2cents..