Digital BW, The Print

At Antonis's suggestion, I contacted Bowhaus a few days ago to 
ask if there was a recent beta they could send that might fix a 
streaking/banding problem. The problem had been reported by 
_some_ of us when printing areas of 100% black with OPM on 
the Epson 2200.

Huzzah! They did (send me a copy of OPM 1.02b5), and it does 
(fix my problems). Areas with 100% black  now print without 
streak or band defects. In addition, the program's "image adjust" 
features now works properly (instead of freezing the program 
when attempting to use the lightness or contrast sliders). 
Huzzah, again.

I don't have densitometer data yet, but visual evaluation of testing 
--with my "standard" print and a 26-step grayscale--indicates that 
the new version gives noticeably  higher densities across the 
lower half of the scale and probably somewhat higher contrast 
as well. This is based on using Carl Schofield's linearized profile 
set.The grayscale (printed with Carl's "cool" IJC profile) is also a 
bit colder-toned than before. However the test prints are not yet 
fully dried, so these conclusions about tone could change with 
time. I assume that Carl linearized the profiles by printing with 
the previous OPM version, so I imagine it's no surprise that the 
profiles might need relinearizing now(?).  As before, a 50/50 
blend of Carl's "cool" and "warm" profiles gave a good neutral 
tone.

I'm encouraged that Bowhaus has continued to refine (or at least 
debug) their very capable software. At this stage, OPM seems 
capable of fulfilling my B&W printing needs, and the prospect of 
purchasing the IJC module becomes very appealing.

Phil

Phil,

glad to hear the good news. And yes, the profiles may need some tweaking. 
Do I see a densitometer in your future?...   :  -  )

Antonis




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Phil Rose" 
<pjrose@f...> wrote:

.....
> 
> Huzzah! They did (send me a copy of OPM 1.02b5), and it does 
> (fix my problems). Areas with 100% black  now print without 
> streak or band defects. In addition, the program's "image adjust" 
> features now works properly (instead of freezing the program 
> when attempting to use the lightness or contrast sliders). 
> Huzzah, again.

.......

> Huzzah! They did (send me a copy of OPM 1.02b5), and it does 
> (fix my problems). 

Antonio, or anyone ?  The version that downloads from bowhaus.com
still seems to be 1.02.  Will they soon make this new version the
one you get when you click "Download OpenPrintMaker" ?

Thanks, John

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, 
"johngeyles" <jge@c...> wrote:
>The version that downloads from bowhaus.com
> still seems to be 1.02.  Will they soon make this new version 
> the one you get when you click "Download OpenPrintMaker" ?


I don't know if Bowhaus would do that until they get more 
feedback about it.  I sent them feedback about my session with 
1.02b5, but I have no idea if they've heard from many (any?) 
others You could request a copy of 1.02b5--if you were having 
problems with 1.02. One other thing that might slow them down 
(about releasing that version) is if it needs to have a new set of 
"canned" ijc profiles; I think might be needed, at least for the 
2200. 

Phil