Digital BW, The Print

Just got a call from a Margaret at Epson regarding my phoned-in question
yesterday about the Gray Balancer issue. While she was very pleasant (and
there is something refreshing about a major company actually bothering to
call back and take 15 minutes to discuss a complaint), that's about as far
as the lovefest went.

Paraphrasing the highlights of what I was told:
--Each Epson regional division makes its own decision as to what added
features (i.e., gray balancer, CD printing) it wants to offer. Epson N.
America simply chose not to offer...well, anything ;-). There was a vague
something about "not wanting to limit our paper choices" (?!), but overall
the question was politely dodged.
--Epson N.A. has no plans to release the GB software as a separate add-on
for those who want to try it. We might be able to unofficially get it from
overseas, but they can't promise it will work with the 2200 as "the drivers
are different." 
--They are aware of the importance of quality B&W output to pros and
continuing to work on improving it further. They also know metamerism is a
big issue among us. She threw out some stat about "delta E" being reduced
from I believe 8-something in the 2000 to 2-something in the new printers.
Perhaps the brainier list members can explain what, if anything, this means.

Overall impression: nice person relaying an official corporate snow job.
Just thought I'd pass it on.

Doug

snip
> big issue among us. She threw out some stat about "delta E" being reduced
> from I believe 8-something in the 2000 to 2-something in the new printers.
> Perhaps the brainier list members can explain what, if anything, this means.


Not being one of those but just wanted to note that you can find a lot of
info about this measurement of perceptual color differences on the web. As
well as many fine papers including the words of A. Rodney, C.D. Tobie and C.
Murphy... et al. Yes, it means something.

Carolyn

----- Original Message -----

From: "Doug I." <doug@...>
To: "DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint"
<DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 02, 2002 2:10 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] Conversation w/Epson about 2200


> Just got a call from a Margaret at Epson regarding my phoned-in question
> yesterday about the Gray Balancer issue. While she was very pleasant (and
> there is something refreshing about a major company actually bothering to
> call back and take 15 minutes to discuss a complaint), that's about as far
> as the lovefest went.
>
> Paraphrasing the highlights of what I was told:
> --Each Epson regional division makes its own decision as to what added
> features (i.e., gray balancer, CD printing) it wants to offer. Epson N.
> America simply chose not to offer...well, anything ;-). There was a vague
> something about "not wanting to limit our paper choices" (?!), but overall
> the question was politely dodged.
> --Epson N.A. has no plans to release the GB software as a separate add-on
> for those who want to try it. We might be able to unofficially get it from
> overseas, but they can't promise it will work with the 2200 as "the
drivers
> are different."

Doug,

Thanks for sharing the Epson feedback. The different driver issue may be a
real one. It has been noted that the 1280 and 1290 drivers differ enough to
require different separation curves to use the MIS-VM inks. The chances that
the GB for the 2100 will not work for the 2200 are probably pretty high. I
wonder if  each "regional division" tweaks or develops their own driver?

Martin

(snip)