Digital BW, The Print

I will be getting my 4000 soon and want to try the Gray Balancer 
before I spend $895 for Imageprint. I downloaded the English 
language software from Epson's Russian site (linked from Luminous 
Landscape) and read the comments there and on Photo-I as well as the 
many threads here.  Has anyone had success with the Kodak Grayscale 
card? Or, is the Epson card(s) a must have?  If someone has the 
Epson card(s) and no longer uses them please contact via e-mail.  
Any tips, suggestions are welcome.

Andrew, 
Please keep us informed as to what you find with Gray Balancer. I've 
heard both good and bad things about this s/w.  I may do the same... 
Actually, the neutrality of the 4000 Epson profiles is very good.  To 
my eyes just a very,very slight magenta cast.  I'm going to try 
custom profiles to see if this helps.  I'm also running Eboni Black 
for BO, and for some prints this works well.  I can't justify $900 
for IP for a bit improved B&W's.  Good luck.
Steve  


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Unger" 
<ungram@y...> wrote:
> I will be getting my 4000 soon and want to try the Gray Balancer 
> before I spend $895 for Imageprint. I downloaded the English 
> language software from Epson's Russian site (linked from Luminous 
> Landscape) and read the comments there and on Photo-I as well as 
the 

> many threads here.  Has anyone had success with the Kodak Grayscale 
> card? Or, is the Epson card(s) a must have?  If someone has the 
> Epson card(s) and no longer uses them please contact via e-mail.  
> Any tips, suggestions are welcome.

Guys-

Just my two cents...and I have NOT tried the Gray Balancer on the 
4000 (I did try it on the 2200 and it was a total waste of time).

If you are only printing on one paper, the cheapest way to get an 
excellent print is to get a custom profile. But if you use a variety 
of papers and like to alter the toning, there is really almost no 
real choice for windows users. You can even start to justify it on 
the basis of the cost of the larger paper you will save by needing 
way way way fewer test prints. I haven't seen IP 6.0 yet, but the MAC 
guys say it's great. I'm totally pleased with the workflow and 
results with IP 5.6 (we will all get a free upgrade to 6.0 when it is 
ready for windows).

It definitely sounds like a lot of $$ for a RIP, but I really think 
it's worth it.  If you are running MACs there are several great free 
and nearly free options (this would make the cost feel a lot worse <g>

Another piece of good news is that there will be a whole new batch of 
free profiles released over the next couple of weeks that will add 
papers and improve the ones that are out there even more.

I can only tell you that I am one very happy user.

Tom O'Connell




--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "brinkker2000" 
<stevebrink@m...> wrote:
> Andrew, 
> Please keep us informed as to what you find with Gray Balancer. 
I've