Digital BW, The Print

Back in March, there was a post on the Epson Wide Format List asking if it is possible to 
add Media Types to the Epson driver.  Many people replied that it is not.  Then Stephen 
Best replied with the following.  No one ever replied to his post.  I am surprised that it just 
died.  This seems to me like an incredibly useful discovery.  Am I wrong?  Any software 
engineers out there that can discern if it is possible to control ink limits with these files?

Best.

Josh

Here is Stephen's post to EpsonWideFormat:


I've done this on my Mac for the 7800 ... the structure is likely the same for
all Epson drivers, probably on Windows as well. On my machine there's two xml files:

    com.epson.ijprinter.SPro7800.mp
    com.epson.ijprinter.SPro7800_1.mp

The first is for PK, the second for MK. These reference data files inIJ_MediaFolder. As a 
test, I duplicated SPro 7800 USFA_1.rsrc, changed the paper name(s) internally and created 
a new entry in com.epson.ijprinter.SPro7800_1.mp referencing the new media file and, lo 
and behold, this is now selectable from the driver. I spent some time looking at the 
internals of the media file and it appears everything specific to the paper is contained here 
... though I've only been able to change the name and paper thickness so far.  I'm pretty 
sure ColorBase updates this file. I don't know however whether it contains ink limits or 
simply references a media lookup in the printer itself. If the ink limits *are* included, all it 
needs is for someone to write a utility to linearize third-party papers, build the resource 
file and add it to the xml above ... third-party papers would then be selectable by name 
and you wouldn't need a RIP to get the absolute best from them. You could also go further 
and add/reference ICC profiles so the driver could do the colour space conversion.

I may play around with this some more but it's not a priority at the moment. I was just
curious.

Stephen Best
Macquarie Editions