Digital BW, The Print

I don't have an answer for you, but with any rip (or even to get the best
results from ABW) you'll want a spectro.  The one that comes with the PFP is
good.  I'm using it now instead of my X-Rite for most purposes.  It can't do
strip reading, but it's also less than half the price of those that can.

 

Once you have the PFP spectro and software, you'll want your 2400 profiled
with it in any case.   I use my 2400 for color output, profiled with the
PFP, and it's almost perfect - for color.  Frankly I don't use that printer
for B&W, but I'm sure it'd be fine - if you don't mind the excess of color
in the image.  I do, so I use other printers for B&W.  If I didn't have
other printers, needed color in the 2400, and still wanted B&W prints with
the least color, I'd use one of the rips you mentioned.  I'm not in a
position to compare the rips because IJC is the only one I know how to use.
(This will change in the not too distant future, I hope.)

 

As a first step after getting a spectro, you could make ICCs with QTR Create
ICC and use them to match the grayscale ramp of your monitor with the output
of ABW mode prints.  (I suppose you could also do tone soft proofing, but
I'm less impressed with that need for B&W.)  Create ICC + ABW makes a rather
nice workflow.

 

Paul

www.PaulRoark.com <http://www.paulroark.com/>  

 

 

  _____  

From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
trrekrider
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 12:29 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Digital BW] which RIP program

 

I have just started printing B&W photos using either the Epson ABW
driver on my R2400 or simply converting RGB files to B&W using various
techniques, soft proofing in CS2 and using the canned ICC profiles
from the paper manufactures. Now I would like to take the next step
and begin using a RIP software program. My question is which one to
use? I have downloaded the QTR and it does not provide much help in
terms of documentation (at least for me) so I have never used it. I
have also seen the IJC/OPM website in which they seem to have a very
good beginners tutorial that was quite helpful but it is also a little
pricy. I have also seen PFP 2.0 discussed on the forum. Any
suggestions and/or help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 



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