StudioPrint caution note
2003-06-20 by Phil Bard
In case anyone on the list is trying out StudioPrint you will want to read this... I've just recently discovered an issue in the loading of images into StudioPrint. When grayscale images are brought into SP for printing SP automatically converts them to RGB, which is normal. When this conversion takes place somehow there is an unintentional down-scaling from 256 levels of gray to 60 or 64. I noticed it in some continuous gray ramps I've been printing and first mistook it for banding. I brought this up with Peter Supry at ErgoSoft, who has been most helpful during my trial time, and after we examined it further it appears to be a problem with SP's internal GS-to- RGB conversion process. He is looking into getting it fixed, but in the meantime there is a workaround that will import the images without damaging their histograms. Here is what to do: Go File>Import or click on the Import button. Navigate to the image to be loaded and select it. Before clicking the "Open" button, go to the "Files of Type" pop-up and select "Tiff Gray as 1 Channel." Then click on "Open." This will cause SP to preserve all 256 levels in the file. This will work for all 8 bit grayscale images. Also, do not convert your GS images to RGB in Photoshop beforehand and then try to bring them in as this procedure will NOT work and your histograms will suffer. It apparently has something to do specifically with SP's GS>RGB conversion. ErgoSoft is working on a proper fix. Hope this helps... Phil http://cirrus-digital.com http://philbard.com