Digital BW, The Print

Does a RIP like ImagePrint obviate the need for custom printer/paper 
profiles, or do the two work in tandem?  I know that IP will respect 
embedded profiles, and I believe that Colorbyte supplies profiles of 
its own for various printer/paper combinations.  But I'm not sure if 
the profiles are a requirement or just an option.

I own an Epson 2200 and am anticipating an investment in ImagePrint 
5.0, and am wondering if it would be wise to first try custom 
profiling my favorite papers, or if this step would be made redundant 
by the RIP.

Thanks,
Dan

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Dan_Honemann" <
dan_honemann@y...> wrote:
> Does a RIP like ImagePrint obviate the need for custom printer/paper 
> profiles, or do the two work in tandem? 

You can build custom profiles if you like. If you use a paper that isn't 
supported, you'd want to do this (although the RIP comes with a target that 
you can output and send to ColorByte and they will create a profile for you). 

For grins I build a custom profile and it worked just fine. I simply opened the 
target from ProfileMaker Pro (the new 9.88), set the RIP so it would not use an 
output profile, measured and loaded the new profile.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "thedigitaldog"
<andrew@d...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Dan_Honemann" <
> dan_honemann@y...> wrote:
> > Does a RIP like ImagePrint obviate the need for custom printer/paper 
> > profiles, or do the two work in tandem? 
> 
> You can build custom profiles if you like. If you use a paper that
isn't 
> supported, you'd want to do this (although the RIP comes with a
target that 
> you can output and send to ColorByte and they will create a profile
for you). 
> 
> For grins I build a custom profile and it worked just fine. I simply
opened the 
> target from ProfileMaker Pro (the new 9.88), set the RIP so it would
not use an 
> output profile, measured and loaded the new profile.

The people I know who've been trying it aren't grinning.
Tyler

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "tboleyyh" <tyler@t...> wrote:

> The people I know who've been trying it aren't grinning.
> Tyler

What seems to be the problem? It's easier than using the Epson driver and 
unlike the Epson driver, doesn't pile the paper with far too much ink in a non 
linear fashion.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "thedigitaldog"
<andrew@d...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "tboleyyh" <tyler@t...> wrote:
>
> > The people I know who've been trying it aren't grinning.
> > Tyler
>
> What seems to be the problem? It's easier than using the Epson
driver and
> unlike the Epson driver, doesn't pile the paper with far too much
ink in a non
> linear fashion.

Well, one individual, fairly experienced, has actually corresponded
with you about it. This probably isn't the right forum for this, and I
have no personal experience with it, but I'm told that there is some
black box magic happening with the RGB flow that makes 3rd party
profiling difficult. The response was, I believe, "you should just use
our profiles, our way is better". Paraphrased.
People on the 9000 list are beginning to play with it, comments across
the board so far. I'd say that forum will be interesting to watch with
regard to this product as there are many experienced printers and
profilers there.
Tyler

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "tboleyyh" <tyler@t...> wrote:
> Well, one individual, fairly experienced, has actually corresponded
> with you about it. This probably isn't the right forum for this, and I
> have no personal experience with it, but I'm told that there is some
> black box magic happening with the RGB flow that makes 3rd party
> profiling difficult. 

I had no difficulty making a color profile for some Matt paper. Output looked 
great.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "thedigitaldog"
<andrew@d...> wrote:
snip
> I had no difficulty making a color profile for some Matt paper.
Output looked 
> great.

Of course not, you are the digital dog.

Seriously, that's good to hear. I'm keeping my ears open. It will be
interesting over time to see how a good base of users do with a
variety of printers and third party inks. 
Tyler

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "tboleyyh" <tyler@t...>
wrote:
> Seriously, that's good to hear. I'm keeping my ears open. It will be
> interesting over time to see how a good base of users do with a
> variety of printers and third party inks. 
> Tyler

There are several people gearing up to install and test ImagePrint5
on the 9000 list. Unfortunately, most of them are Mac users, and
therefore, 
theyaren't quite rave reviews at this point, due to the interface.
But to be
fair, it's very early yet; I'd say there are *many* people who are
watching their
progress, and waiting for them to post their results. I don't expect
anything 
soon; like anything new, I'm sure there'll be a steep learning curve.

Judging from what I'm getting out of the 9600 w/ matte black loaded,
on PhotoRag, BrightCube Eclipse Satine, and EAM, I just can't imagine
a
much nicer print coming out of that printer. The seventh, light grey
ink really 
helps on the greyscale neutrality. But hey, I've been wrong before.
And what the 
heck, it's only Andrew's complete reputation at stake here, right?And
we at 
least know the city that he lives in; shouldn't take that long to
find a street 
address...

MT

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "marktuckerdotcom" <
mtucker508@y...> wrote:
> There are several people gearing up to install and test ImagePrint5
> on the 9000 list. Unfortunately, most of them are Mac users, and
> therefore, 
> theyaren't quite rave reviews at this point, due to the interface.

It's pretty fugly. But no worse than a lot of other Mac RIPs (which you can 
count on one hand) out there. OS9 is a stopgap. It's a crummy OS for a RIP. 
ColorByte is working on an OSX version and then the OS9 version will be a 
thing of the past. But the GUI needs some work! I've made plenty of 
suggestions about cleaning it up and using terms that normal users can 
understand. 

> heck, it's only Andrew's complete reputation at stake here, right?And
> we at 
> least know the city that he lives in; shouldn't take that long to
> find a street 
> address...

Address on request at any time!