Digital BW, The Print

Chip wrote:

> In the meantime, is it possible for you to give a brief summary of
> improvements to "ease of use" in the upgrade?
> 
Chip:

There is now a "probe" window that (when expanded with the little arrow)
shows all the settings attached to the picture you have selected in the
"feedback" window. This is a terrific time saver in that you can see all the
Color Management and print settings for an image in one place.

Also a few other enhancements are - double clicking on the image in the
feedback window will bring up a hi-res Soft Proof. It works like
"ViewProofSetup PaperWhite clicked ON" in PhotoShop. It's nice to have it
here just before output. Another feature that is new to me is the amount of
job info available in the spooler. Also now when you put your mouse cursor
over those damnably incomprehensible icons in the toolbar a verbal "tool
tip" appears telling you exactly what the icon means. I HATE icons in place
of plain english. Now that I have plain English, I might actually use the
toolbar.

For the roll your own profile lunatic fringe, I believe ink limiting is now
activated (have not tried this yet). I proudly count myself to be a member
of this august group. Unfortunately under cross examination I would be
forced to admit that this is a total waste of time for those whose interest
is fine printing and could care less about techno geek stuff.

It is nice to know that if you decide you simply must use that special rice
paper only made during the full moon on a remote island in the Japanese
archipelago, for a small price you can get a custom profile made by any
number of vendors.

Every MacIntosh "pre-release" software owner is entitled to this new 5.5
release free of charge. It should be available for download this coming week
from the ColorByte Web site. Another option would be to call ColorByte, give
them your FEX# and get a CD. They have done this for me several times over
the past 18 months or so.

Along with everyone else I hope that there will be interface improvements in
future releases, but the fact of the matter is with a little head scratching
you CAN use the product now and everything you need is in this 5.5 release.
There are added features that I would never have dreamed of receiving when I
first invested in this product - such as the b/w ultrachome printing, good
soft proofing and the potential for reduced bronzing on glossy papers (I
haven't had a chance to check this out).

Colorbyte software has actually done way more than they said they were going
to do within six months of when they said they were going to do it. Rare for
a software company.

The only component of this release that I would say is still a work in
progress from a purely fuctional point of view is the proofing component. By
that I mean the ability to simulate the behavior of another printing device,
say swop or newsprint, on the device you are actually printing to. But for
most users interested in ImagePrint, it is not limiting output quality to
simulate that of another device, but maximizing output quality that is the
primary concern.

Colorbyte can be accused of that most unpardonable of sins, putting a lousy
wrapper on a superb product. In these times, how dare they? Dumb engineers,
they need some product development and marketing suits down there in Florida
toute suite! Much better to start with the package and worry about the
contents later. Whatever were they thinking?

They have also attempted what to accommodate the low volume, but extremely
demanding user with lower pricing. It should be no problem to be up and
running at the "desktop" pricing within in the 90 day support period. In
fact even with the original OS 9.0 release it really only took a few days of
sporadic effort. This release is hours - not days.

If you don't want to pay for the ongoing support contract, keep in mind it
is not absolutely necessary. The profiles are free and updated all the time.
These profiles work well for even the most demanding user. In repeated tests
comparing custom profiles to the "stock" Colorbyte profiles there are only
barely discernable differences. While this makes for interesting discussion
it is of no practical consequence in the real world.

If you want to upgrade a few years out just buy a new copy of the software.
One could time software purchases to coincide with the purchase of a new
printer, for instance. For the desktop user this would end up being cheaper
than PhotoShop upgrades.

In conclusion I will be the first to admit this stuff ain't cheap, but you
DO get what you pay for. I actually think the purchase price and support
contracts are a bargain. By "boutique" software industry standards they are
giving the product away. In the past 18 months Colorbyte has produced a
stable OS X release, supported several new printers as soon as they were
introduced, continues to release profiles for new media and inks and
provides support to end users for their product and Epson, HP etc printers,
PhotoShop and who knows what else (well I haven't been able to get a blind
date yet..). All for an installed base of about 2000 users. I think we
should be very grateful indeed.

Best wishes,

Nick Wheeler