Digital BW, The Print

Hello Russ. Personally I find that the best results over all printing 
with my 2200 are with the enhanced matte paper. I also use the 
luster. Theres not yet a dig print that compares to a silver print, I 
own a pro B&W lab and I know from where I speak. The color cast with 
dig prints depends on how you profile the printer for viewing. I must 
say tho that over all my prints with Imageprint are amazing. The 
color prints are really great, once again the color will depend upon 
how you profile the printer. Image print is a fabulous tool. I get 
perfect prints in color the first time. Basically what you see on the 
screen is what you will get on the print.Another thing I should 
mention is that I have not calibrated either my screen or photoshop. 
I use the basic settings and my prints are really great. Imageprint 
takes care of any color management. When it comes to B&W thats 
another story. Once again the color of the print depends upon how you 
profile the printer with Imageprint. One thing about B&W is that 
Imageprint demands that the files be stored in RGB and this could 
possibly create a color cast in printing. Once again I find that the 
enhanced matte paper is the best looking for B&W print. I would 
recommend Imageprint without hesitation, its an amazing tool. It is 
hard to install tho you will prob need help for that. I hope that 
this is a help to you. Steve

> ...One thing about B&W is that
> Imageprint demands that the files be stored in RGB and this could
> possibly create a color cast in printing.

Huh? No, ImagePrint takes grayscale files for its grayscale paper 
profiles. And it prints spot-on neutral B&W prints wth these profiles.

> ...I would
> recommend Imageprint without hesitation, its an amazing tool. It is
> hard to install tho you will prob need help for that. I hope that
> this is a help to you.

Hard to install? Not really, just a few clicks and choosing the 
appropriate printer and entering the dongle code, as is covered in the 
QuickStart manual. Also, see the note on setting up IP for beginners on:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ImagePrint/files/

--Mitch/Potomac, MD

Is that true with the Epson Ultrachorme inks, or only with quad-black 
inksets?

Gilbert

On Tuesday, September 23, 2003, at 11:35  AM, Mitch Alland wrote:

> Huh? No, ImagePrint takes grayscale files for its grayscale paper
> profiles. And it prints spot-on neutral B&W prints wth these profiles.

Mitch,
     Thanks for the information. I'm feeling less intimidated.

Russ 


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

Gilbert:

>> Huh? No, ImagePrint takes grayscale files for its grayscale paper
>> profiles. And it prints spot-on neutral B&W prints wth these profiles.

> Is that true with the Epson Ultrachorme inks, or only with quad-black
> inksets?

I was referring to Ultrachrome inks: IP takes either 8- or 16-bit 
grayscale files.

--Mitch/Paris

Steve:

>  I am using a 2200 printer with the regular Epson inks on
> a PC. I print both B&W and color a lot. When I store a B&W file from
> Photoshop I have to store the file as RGB. If I dont do this when I
> open a file in Imageprint it separates the image into 3 images and
> tries to create separations of the image.Therefor Imageprint does
> demand an RGB file. I was surprised that this happend but when I save
> the image in RGB from Photoshop I have no problem. I dont know if you
> are using a 2200 printer but this is the way I have to store images
> from Photoshop...

First, as you can see from the IP manual the 2200 and the 7600 work the 
same way as far as the selection of printer/paper profiles and the use 
of RGB or grayscale files is concerned.

Second, in your message you say nothing about the type of IP profiles 
you are using. As indicated in the IP QuickStart Manual, IP has both 
five types of profiles, as follows:

> EDAY     Balanced for daylight
> ECWF    Balanced for cool-white fluorescent lighting
> ECWF2  Balanced for skin tones in portrait work
> ETUNG  Balanced for tungsten light
> GREY     Exclusively for the grey scale workflow available only with 
> 7-color Ultrachrome inks.

The first four are for printing from RGB files. The fifth is for 
printing from grayscale files. It seems to me that your problem is that 
you are using one of the RGB profiles and therefore you are finding 
that you need RGB rather than grayscale files. If you want to print 
really neutral B&W files with IP, you should be using one of their 
grayscale profiles -- they all have the word "grey" in the profile name 
-- for example, "ep2200_grey_luster_1440". These grayscale profiles are 
made for using with grayscale files, not RGB files. Using the grayscale 
profiles will activate the TintPicker which you can use for subtle 
toning of your prints. Have a look at the IP QuickStart Manual as well 
as the IP Manual. That might be more useful than the information you 
are getting from your dealer because either he is misinforming you or 
the two of you are mis-communicating.

BTW, once you start using the grayscale profiles you will find that 
they cannot be previewed in the PhotoShop Proof Color facility. See my 
note on IP setup to which I referred yesterday to see how to set up a 
preview in Photoshop (there are two methods).

If you have other problems with IP you might try posting to the yahoo 
IP group for which I gave you the url yesterday.

--Mitch/Paris

I'm jumping into fine digital printing (or so I hope) ...

... was going to go for John Cone's Pizeography, but have been urged to 
consider Lyson small gamut inks instead.  Have any of you had experience 
with both, and any comments to share.  I'm planning to dedicate an Epson 
1280 to this (and another 1280 to color -- probably using Lyson Photonic 
inks -- would also welcome off list comments on this choice.)

Arthur Fink

A r t h u r    F i n k
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