The TBW software is fantastic and dirt cheap for what it can do for someone like me who has laid out the cash for Studio Print over the years. What is it like $1,500.00 - $2,000.00 now for SP and a big learning curve for most people.
The problem with TBW is with the documentation (almost none) and, like you say lack of support for the new Eye One 2.
My take on this is that they developed this software for their own needs (they produce some of the finest pigment art prints in the US to very exacting standards). They are the first printers I've ever seen that were able to really match silver prints of a major photographer with inkjet pigments on fiber gloss. I think offering these programs to the public is kind of an after thought.
I think it is a super easy platform to use, and even their stock curves work very well for stock curves for me on the Harmon gloss media, even before I linearized them. The Canon solution for this is super clunky and inadequate.
It only takes a few minutes to enter the data and drop it in and make a linearization. Once that is done you have an exacting curve to use for years. For me I use a limited number of papers so its a no brainer. It would be nice if they offered folks a lot more third party paper curves though. Maybe they didn't want to piss Canon off and mess it all up for themselves, since their primary need is to use it for their own printing, not selling the software.
I don't have any problems creating custom paper sizes which I do all the time. That's a very easy interface. If you choose "save media" option your file is trimmed to the size you send it on a roll. That is the way I print anyway, on rolls.
For a system to produce this kind of totally color free neutral print on a fiber gloss media like the Harmon and the Harmon warmtone by using only the gray and black inks is just super great to me. No, metamerism failure, no color cross over, no bizarre casts, just total clean neutral on the fly prints. If I use their standard warm curve for the Harmon Warmtone it is instant Afga Portriga Rapid, just as clean as the neutral curves result. All my editions look exactly the same and it's so easy.
The other idea of creating different color blends for monochrome for various lighting color temperatures seems like a total nightmare to me.I went down that road many years ago and I'm not going there ever again. Prints are shown in all kinds places and you can never control that or the way light may be mixed in any given situation. So, I want composite color free monochrome, either from the Cone K7 inks I use or the Canon 8300 and TBW. And I have that.
I totally agree the need to update that support for the new Eye One, absolutely! I've complained to them about that as kindly as I can, and it's frustrating. I'm sure they aren't making much money on this so their attitude is if you don't like it don't use it, not in a nasty way but in a pragmatic way. I understand that. I'm just glad I have it. They have a free demo to test it out before you buy. I find them very nice people, just not really big into promoting this product, for whatever reason.
John
--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "keith" <yg_1@...> wrote:
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> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "john" <deanwork2003@> wrote:
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> > Yes ColorPort is great.
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> > The way to work with monochrome on the latest Canon IPf 8300 is with the TBW software. The Canon software solution for bw is limited at best. Unfortunately with my new EyeOne Pro 2 spectro you can't plug it in and load the data directly into TBW, but with X-Rite ColorPort you can read the numbers from the target and enter them into the TBW software manually.
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> > john
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> I've tried this on our 8300, and although the printing side is good, paper handling, especially custom sizes leaves a lot to be desired (metric seems to have been added almost as an afterthought - anyone ever come across A10 roll paper?)
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> Support for the i1Pro lacked the ability to enter data files from measurements, and entering values by hand make me feeling I'm back on a MS-DOS based PC
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> I sooo wanted to like the software but not there yet...
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