Digital BW, The Print

> 
> Sounds pretty terrific, Antonis! However, at the risk of reviving an 
> old, tired, and completely useless rivarly-please remind them 
> that 'Mac only' is a bit 20th century, yes? 
> 
> Steve K

> old, tired, and completely useless rivarly-please remind them 
> that 'Mac only' is a bit 20th century, yes? 
> 
> Steve K

> Steve,
> 
> no argument there. A Windows version will be coming if there is 
> enough interest for the OS 9 release.  They are by no means 
> "dissing" the other 80% of the market! 
> 
> Antonis
>

> Happy New Year to all, and with that, here is a bit of news on a
> product that may in fact make life easier for  those of us trying to
> make the best digital bw prints possible.
> 
> It seems that the wraps are about to come off on a piece of
> software that brings a whole new set of functionality to inkjet
> printing of grayscale files. I am currently testing a beta version of
> what is - for now - called Inkjet Control (IJC for short).
> 
> The big news is that IJC allows end-users to make their own
> profiles as well as choose which jets to use (from the 4-7 jets of
> an Epson printer). It supports the 1160 / 1280 / 2200 of the
> desktops and the 7000/9000 series. The connection is only
> through USB and for now, it is only for the Mac OS 9 (though it
> runs respectably in Classic under OS X). It accepts 8 or 16bit
> files and recognizes embedded gammas as well as gives you a
> choice of 1.8 or 2.2 print gamma.
> 
> It has worked fine for me so far, though there are still some bugs
> and limitations (for example, you can't define custom paper sizes
> or use rolls). The interface will need some tweaking but that's
> just a matter of time . Bear in mind that IJC is dongle-protected
> and that to make accurate profiles one needs a densitometer.
> And having a spreadsheet program available helps with
> profiling, though not an absolute necessity.
> 
> This may still be a bit rough-around-the-edges  but it is
> promising enough and functional enough that the company
> wants to sell a limited number of copies to users likely to  be
> able to explore it and provide good feedback.
> 
> You can reach them at:
> 
> ijc@...
> 
> Meanwhile, in my own use, it has made it possible to:
> 
> - match prints between printers and inksets
> - update a profile for my 1280 whose CIS seems to run a little
> lighter at the beginning of the day, thus maintaining consistency
> from print to print.
> - correct a weirdness in a 7000 black head (that was putting out
> some extra dots to the right) by running it at a slightly lower ink
> limit. 
> -  make toned bw prints from a 2200 by using the black and gray
> to make a complete grayscale and then adding just a touch of a
> color ink to tone it.
> - load inks from whatever  inkset and in whatever order I needed
> (for example to produce a split tone or use a black from a
> different inkset). Since I can use any combination of available
> jets, I made a grayscale from 3 grays and a black and kept 2
> positions for toners (on a 9500).
> - optimize a profile for text-only pages of a book that used black
> and light gray . This allowed me to control how "heavy" black type
> will appear and also make the gray pretty much dotless.
> - reduce dots across the scale by deciding where I want the
> darker inks to kick in and how "fast".
> - gotten better dmaxes by having access to the full range of
> power with which the head is driven and deciding where to limit it
> depending on papers etc.
> 
> The jury is still out on issues of screen-matching. I find that a
> print setting of 1.8 (for untagged or 1.8-tagged files) closely
> matches the screen to the print in all but the shadow areas.   For
> critical work a preview profile is still a good idea in Photoshop.
> But because the inks can be adjusted to whatever curves or
> aims you like, all these issues are not "hardwired" and can be
> addressed by the end-user .
> 
> For now, I'd say that people totally new to mono printing should
> consider carefully if they want to jump in on the "pre-release"
> phase. Anyone with a densitometer and (optionally) a functional
> understanding of  Excel, however, is bound to be a power user
> overnight!
> Profiles may not be readily available yet , but  some basic ones,
> for EAM and Piezotones or  MIS-FS inks and perhaps the 1280
> and 7000 are likely to be. Still, I find that if you have one or two
> decent profiles as a start, you can quickly tweak them to
> accomodate other papers, inksets and printers. And I am sure
> once IJC comes into wide use, there will be tons of profiles to
> share (and upload to lists etc). So, in a way, the fact that it may
> not ship initially with many profiles will only affect  users
> expecting total plug-and-play.
> 
> Looks like we are off to a good start this year!....
> 
> Antonis

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robert Morrison 
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 8:33 PM
  Subject: Re: [Digital BW] New software for mono printing


  I've been beta testing Inkjet Control (IJC) for the last several months as
  well.  This program is a dream for those of us who have wanted complete
  control over printing BW photographs.  As a Mac user since 1984, and someone
  who has been scanning and printing since 1988, I find it satisfying that a
  developer choose to develop in the original desktop graphics platform
  first...but as Antonis has mentioned there are plans for a Windows version
  as well as a OSX native update for the mac version in the near future.

  Antonis did an excellent job of outlining the features/advantages of IJC but
  I will try to add a little bit as well as describe my own experiences.

  I see inkjet control as the next step beyond the old piezo driver and a
  dream come true for creating partitioned workflows using the epson driver.

  --It is a stand alone application so your expensive copy of photoshop isn't
  tied up while you are printing

  --It is profile "open source"--people can build their own profiles and share
  them--so any paper/ink combination can be used

  --its flexible--want to use MIS VM and VM-sepia in the same six ink printer
  and call up a full sepia print one minute and a cold blue print the
  next...go ahead.  Want to make your own inkset, specifying densities of the
  inks...go ahead. Want to split tone to get that perfect Selenium toned
  look?...not a problem...add some warm tone in the hilights and cool toner in
  the shadows.  Mix your own tone to get exactly the eggplant shadows that you
  want.

  WHAT IJC IS NOT (currently).

  --It is not a plug and play solution.  Initially there is a lot of profiling
  working to be done and this requires a densitometer. As this product rolls
  out it will be for power users...but increasingly useful for everyone as the
  power users share profiles.

  --it is not a full functioning RIP.  There are no template features and the
  only way to gang print at present is to set up a multi-print job in
  photoshop ahead of time.

  --it is for BW only...while you can put anything in the printer for purposes
  of toning...there is currently no capacity for printing RGB or CMYK files
  and no capacity for color profiling.

  PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

  Just a couple of examples of how IJC has already helped me.

  I really like Eclipse Satine Soft White paper.  It is double sided, acid
  free, OB free, reasonably priced and when coated looks the most like an air
  dried silver print of anything I've seen.  The only problem...there isn't a
  decent profile out there for it.  I've tried all of current driver
  companies...but no one provided a decent profile.  Low dmax, compressed
  shadows, snow in the shadows, dots when the cyan enters, hard breaks in gray
  ramps.  You name the problem, I've seen it with this paper.  Piezo driver,
  Imageprint, RGB workflow, I've tried it all.  The problem was that Eclipse
  used a coating different than the other papers on the market and thus had a
  very different need for ink....it needed a truly custom profile.  Using a
  EAM profile that Antonis had given me I was able to create a flawless
  profile for Eclipse in about an hour.  Anyone who has tried to do this with
  a partitioned workflow will know what an hour means...its really, really
  fast. Unlike the partitioned workflows with the epson driver you have direct
  control over how you fire the inks. The profile was even for a non-standard
  inkset (Piezotone Neutral Warms gray inks with MIS FS black ink).  The dmax
  was higher than anything I had ever seen from eclipse and FS black and the
  shadows were perfect.  No breaks anywhere in the gray ramp.  Immediately, I
  printed about 50 8x10's edited under gamma 2.2 on a calibrated
  monitor...every print was perfect...no profiling problems...nothing to fix
  because the gray ramp was right on.

  Another problem that I had was banding caused by head starvation in my 7000.
  Nozzle checks were fine, but when the problem ink was called up I'd get
  banding.  I never knew when it would happen...because I didn't have control.
  Ink manufacturers wouldn't help me because they couldn't reproduce it. Epson
  wouldn't help me cause it didn't happen with the epson OEM inks.  I was
  stuck.  With IJC the solutions were easy...and several choices as to what to
  do.  I could either not use that channel and thus avoid the problem...or I
  could use the channel in a redundant ink (magenta or cyan) and feather it
  with ink from the other channel firing that ink.  That's what I did...and
  the banding is gone...a problem that I tried for 6 months to get rid
  of...gone like that.

  Problems with post print coating.  As many of you have seen, post printing
  coating can get you to "holy silver print land".  High dmax, luminous prints
  with acid free rag papers.  One problem however, is that coatings absorb
  according to what is on the paper...that means both the paper coating and
  the ink of the photo.  The net effect is that you can get non lineararities
  depending on how these factors interact.  With IJC, there is an easy
  solution.  Printout a target and coat the way you choose and then build a
  profile specifically for your chosen coating technique.  No problem.

  So in summary, IJC is something that is really new of the market.  It give
  you an unprecedented level of control and flexibility.  It will be really
  exciting to see what people do with it.

  Robert


  On 1/2/03 3:13 PM, "Antonis Ricos <antonisphoto@...>"
  <antonisphoto@...> wrote:

  > Happy New Year to all, and with that, here is a bit of news on a
  > product that may in fact make life easier for  those of us trying to
  > make the best digital bw prints possible.
  > 
  > It seems that the wraps are about to come off on a piece of
  > software that brings a whole new set of functionality to inkjet
  > printing of grayscale files. I am currently testing a beta version of
  > what is - for now - called Inkjet Control (IJC for short).
  > 
  > The big news is that IJC allows end-users to make their own
  > profiles as well as choose which jets to use (from the 4-7 jets of
  > an Epson printer). It supports the 1160 / 1280 / 2200 of the
  > desktops and the 7000/9000 series. The connection is only
  > through USB and for now, it is only for the Mac OS 9 (though it
  > runs respectably in Classic under OS X). It accepts 8 or 16bit
  > files and recognizes embedded gammas as well as gives you a
  > choice of 1.8 or 2.2 print gamma.
  > 
  > It has worked fine for me so far, though there are still some bugs
  > and limitations (for example, you can't define custom paper sizes
  > or use rolls). The interface will need some tweaking but that's
  > just a matter of time . Bear in mind that IJC is dongle-protected
  > and that to make accurate profiles one needs a densitometer.
  > And having a spreadsheet program available helps with
  > profiling, though not an absolute necessity.
  > 
  > This may still be a bit rough-around-the-edges  but it is
  > promising enough and functional enough that the company
  > wants to sell a limited number of copies to users likely to  be
  > able to explore it and provide good feedback.
  > 
  > You can reach them at:
  > 
  > ijc@...
  > 
  > Meanwhile, in my own use, it has made it possible to:
  > 
  > - match prints between printers and inksets
  > - update a profile for my 1280 whose CIS seems to run a little
  > lighter at the beginning of the day, thus maintaining consistency
  > from print to print.
  > - correct a weirdness in a 7000 black head (that was putting out
  > some extra dots to the right) by running it at a slightly lower ink
  > limit. 
  > -  make toned bw prints from a 2200 by using the black and gray
  > to make a complete grayscale and then adding just a touch of a
  > color ink to tone it.
  > - load inks from whatever  inkset and in whatever order I needed
  > (for example to produce a split tone or use a black from a
  > different inkset). Since I can use any combination of available
  > jets, I made a grayscale from 3 grays and a black and kept 2
  > positions for toners (on a 9500).
  > - optimize a profile for text-only pages of a book that used black
  > and light gray . This allowed me to control how "heavy" black type
  > will appear and also make the gray pretty much dotless.
  > - reduce dots across the scale by deciding where I want the
  > darker inks to kick in and how "fast".
  > - gotten better dmaxes by having access to the full range of
  > power with which the head is driven and deciding where to limit it
  > depending on papers etc.
  > 
  > The jury is still out on issues of screen-matching. I find that a
  > print setting of 1.8 (for untagged or 1.8-tagged files) closely
  > matches the screen to the print in all but the shadow areas.   For
  > critical work a preview profile is still a good idea in Photoshop.
  > But because the inks can be adjusted to whatever curves or
  > aims you like, all these issues are not "hardwired" and can be
  > addressed by the end-user .
  > 
  > For now, I'd say that people totally new to mono printing should
  > consider carefully if they want to jump in on the "pre-release"
  > phase. Anyone with a densitometer and (optionally) a functional
  > understanding of  Excel, however, is bound to be a power user
  > overnight!
  > Profiles may not be readily available yet , but  some basic ones,
  > for EAM and Piezotones or  MIS-FS inks and perhaps the 1280
  > and 7000 are likely to be. Still, I find that if you have one or two
  > decent profiles as a start, you can quickly tweak them to
  > accomodate other papers, inksets and printers. And I am sure
  > once IJC comes into wide use, there will be tons of profiles to
  > share (and upload to lists etc). So, in a way, the fact that it may
  > not ship initially with many profiles will only affect  users
  > expecting total plug-and-play.
  > 
  > Looks like we are off to a good start this year!....
  > 
  > Antonis


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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

From: "Robert Morrison" <rmorrison@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 9:43 PM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] New software for mono printing


> On 1/3/03 12:17 PM, "Ernst Dinkla" <E.Dinkla@...> wrote:
>
> > It must be nice dedicated software for B&W. And a free choice of
channels is
> > good too.
> >
> > If you still want to find what causes the ink starvation then I would
first
> > check the damper of that channel and replace it with a new one.
> > If the inkflow is still too low then the cartneedle may be clogged with
> > particles of the cartseal. Happens when carts are often refilled and the
> > seals are wearing out. Last thing I would check is air getting in at the
> > damper connection or at the cart seal.
>
> All the heads and dampers have been replaced by epson and I get the
problem
> with new carts or old.  I've given up on trying to eliminate the
> banding...hiding it turned out to be easy with IJC.  I mentioned this
> because I think it demonstrates the importance of such a piece of
> software...it opens up a whole new set of possibilities for trouble
> shooting.  Many people have been struggling with posteriztion from MIS
inks
> lately because densities were slightly off...this is an easy tweak in IJC.

Old or new carts will not change the flow through the clogged cartneedle in
the inkslot of the printer. Epson technician never think of that and I know
of two 9000's where one cart needle was blocked that way. It isn't difficult
to get it open again. Of course it is nice to solve it on software level but
I rather would like to have things alright beneath that level.

Ernst

From: "Robert Morrison" <rmorrison@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 04, 2003 1:08 AM
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] New software for mono printing


> On 1/3/03 3:32 PM, "Ernst Dinkla" <E.Dinkla@...> wrote:
>
> > Old or new carts will not change the flow through the clogged cartneedle
in
> > the inkslot of the printer. Epson technician never think of that and I
know
> > of two 9000's where one cart needle was blocked that way. It isn't
difficult
> > to get it open again. Of course it is nice to solve it on software level
but
> > I rather would like to have things alright beneath that level.
> >
> > Ernst
>
> Thanks, he didn't replace the needles...so it is a possibility...I'll have
> to try that.  How did they get the needle open again...replace it...or is
> there a way to clean it?

Put an empty cart in the inkslot that is giving the trouble. At the other
end disconnect the tube from the damper. Take a syringe filled with a
cleaning fluid (Windex should be alright) and press the fluid through the
tube into the empty cart. Remove that cart and use another cart half filled
with cleaning fluid now. Fill the syringe again with cleaning fluid and now
press and suck the cleaning fluid through the inkline several times. Then
take the cart out and suck the rest of the cleaning fluid out of the
inkline. Put the original inkcart back in and suck the ink till the end of
the inkline and a bit more to get rid of air and some cleaner/ink mix.
Attach the tube again to the damper. A KK2 cleaning to get everything
alright again.

One way to detect a blocked needle is by pulling at the syringe when
connected to the tube, if there's more force needed on one inkline than the
other it must be the needle as no thinner part of the inkline exists between
cart and damper. Of course a nearly empty cart is the other possibility but
that one should be excluded from the start.

Ernst