Digital BW, The Print

Hi all,

Currently I'm using UT3D inks in combination QTR (on an Epson 2100). 
I work on PC and I make my profiles with an Eye-one. I'm very happy 
with this setup in terms of print quality and toning versatility. But 
since I made Lightroom the centerpiece of my workflow (still doing 
the major editing work in PS), I get more and more annoyed by the 
fact I can't print directly from Lightroom. I know there are several 
workarounds (e.g. saving as pdf and then converting to tiff etc.), 
but it's just not convenient.

So for some time I'm considering to sell my Eye One and purchase 
PrintFixPro. Since UT3D is essentially a full spectrum, though low 
saturation, inkset that should allow for color managed work flow with 
all conveniences of it: printing directly from Lightroom, previewing 
toning, spatially different toning. This has been advocated on many 
occaisions here.

But from a private e-mail conversation with one of the group members 
I learned that the UT3D+PFP approach is nice in theory, but that in 
practice it is dissappointing since one loses almost all toning 
potential of UT3D and that prints are always essentially neutral. 
Apparently the color mapping done in PFP clips a large chunk of the 
UT3D gammut. After hearing this, I do recall an earlier remark in 
this group (I think it came from Paul Roark), that indicated 
something likes this, but not as severe as I learned recently.

Any experiences or insights in this? Is this is true indeed, than PFP 
will be no good for me and I'd rather stick with my workarounds.

Joost