Desktop proofing with ink jets
Desktop proofing with ink jets
- Subject: Desktop proofing with ink jets
- From: Andrew Rodney <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 12:17:10 -0700
I need a reality check after spending a good part of the day working with a
few Mac products that are supposed to allow someone to take a desktop
printer (in my case an Epson 1270) and simulate a contract proof. Some of
these products use ICC profiles, some use fingerprints. Unlike the Epson
Quickdraw printer, I have the ability to send CMYK data for the eventual
contract proof right to the Epson using these products. I also get pretty
awful color matching and in some cases ugly dithering. So I open the CMYK
file in good old Photoshop and do a Convert to Profile from the contract
proof CMYK profile to an RGB profile for the Epson (canned no less),
Absolute Colorimetric and low and behold, the print matches the Matchprint
I have pretty darn close. Significantly better than either RIP. So I need a
reality check. Why on earth would I want to do this kind of proofing outside
of Photoshop and simply send converted RGB to the printer? It9s faster,
cleaner, easier and best of all, it matches?
Yes I can see sending 30 Quark pages out as EPS and then RIP in Photoshop a
bit of a task. But with these RIPs, I9m getting pretty poor color matching.
Is it just me or is there something I9m missing by recommending for users
consider saving $600-$1000 and RIP files in Photoshop and print RGB from
CMYK (using good profiles) directly to their Quickdraw printers? I wish you
could all see the output here. The RGB files are remarkably close to
matching the contract proof and with a round or two of some profile tuning,
the match would be amazing.
I see just as nice color matching using my Fuji Pictrography using this
technique.
Signed,
I hate RIPs.