Digital BW, The Print

So here is some more info from my discussion with the ImagePrint people
(http://www.colorbytesoftware.com/imageprint.htm):

- ImagePrint for the Mac is currently shipping for the 9000 with other models to 
follow.

- The software is identical to Piezo2, the only difference is that Jon Cone adds 
his own quad profiles. It remains to be seen if those profiles will support 
inksets other than Conetech's. As it ships from ImagePrint, Lyson, Piezo and 
some MIS profiles are included.

- In order to get a profile of a new bw ink/paper combo you print a supplied 
target and send it to Colorbyte to make a profile for you. That essentially 
makes it an open system, especially if ColorByte doesn't charge for the 
profiles.

- Colorbyte tells me that the dithering that is provided by ImagePrint is their 
own and is different from whatever  earlier Piezo software uses. Since Piezo2 
is wholly based on ImagePrint, the dithering will be that of ImagePrint, not that 
of PiezoBW or PiezoPro (which can be neither better nor worse, just different).

- In grayscale, you can feed RGB or gray files in 8 or 16 bit. They tell me there 
is no discernible difference in printing a 16 bit gray file.There should be further 
research on this.

- Pricing as well as copy protection is similar. Entry level 1270/80 support for 
color and bw is $495, which is $100 less than Conetech, but for, say, a 9000, 
pricing is identical at $2,495. Both need a USB dongle. Functionality is 
scalable via encryption keys. You can buy the desktop model version and get 
a "key" for only that model, then pay the differrence to add a wide format and 
get a new "key". Under Mac OS 9 you can feed only one printer at a time, but 
you can line up several jobs to run at different supported and connnected 
printers one after the other. On a PC it can actually run them at the same time 
(this will change with OS X).

- There is an option to add a Postscript Level 3 interpreter. Pricing depends on 
the printer model (from $295 for a 1270 to $800 for a 9000). This means you 
can print pages directly from Quark or similar. A boon to bookmakers.


If you missed it in the past, a review of the PC version appears here:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/imageprint.htm

For bw printing, it seems the main issues are the profiles (Cone vs Colorbyte) 
and the proprietary microweave. Someone like Mike Kravit who has both RIPs 
running on a 7000 can examine prints under a loupe and tell us more on the 
pros and cons. Otherwise, piezo2 seems nothing more than a rebadging of 
ImagePrint and a great indorsement of the latter at that.

For me, the unfortunate part is that we still don't have software access to 
profiling ink/paper/printer combos at the user level (as we do for color, for 
example). 

Antonis