Re: ImagePrint
Re: ImagePrint
- Subject: Re: ImagePrint
- From: "Cris Daniels" <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 11:16:59 -0300
>
I probably will get another Epson to support their constant cleaning cycles
to support the never ending consumables costs
Last I looked, every printer company charged for ink and paper.
>
yet now you custom make all your profiles because there is
indeed differences in printers
Personally, I make profiles because I want to be sure that they are as good as
possible. It is entirely possible that a client will be satisfied with the
standard profile if their printer is close to Colorbyte's ( or Onyx, Best),
but no promises from anyone. The original profiles that Colorbyte shipped with
the 7600 totally didn't work well in my case, they've made some new ones after
a firmware update and they seem to work much better.
>
I'm getting lost in your circle talk. Not only have you slighted every rip
maker out there, coming up with the pom pom cheerleading of a rip that
supposedly does secret things that can be modified for a price by Colorbyte
All I'm trying to say is that I don't see the point in buying a RIP and then
using pre-made lin curves, and the lin curves are only part of the equation,
so the combination of pre-baked lin curves and a pre-made profile is a shot in
the dark as far as color accuracy. Anyone demanding dead accurate color is
going to need equipment to calibrate this RIP/printer combo. There really
isn't an argument here. Colorbyte may also need calibration, but in their case
you will need to make another profile. Often they will do this for you for a
minimal charge using their proprietary profiler/spectrolino. I'm not
slighting every RIP company either, this all started about how Colorbyte has
approached driving these printers with a less than conventional system.
Colorbyte has their own way of building these recipes, why they would ever
tell me how its done or distribute that software to do these calculations?
This is called a competitive advantage and being in business.
>
An OsX version is well
awaited too
I've seen it and it works, it probably isn't far off from hitting the streets.
I am going respond to this last comment and probably let this thread poop out
(at least on my part). I don't want to beat on this any longer unless someone
has a specific comment for me in particular.
>
IF the quality of the supplied lin/profiles are not up to it then that's an
issue to take up with your supplier.
There is no way that we can agree that these printers can print
differently, yet hold a RIP vendor, color management company, VAR, or
consultant responsible. It is the end-users problem to calibrate, the software
will allow you to do this and consider yourself lucky when the pre-packaged
profiles actually work.
Bruce Linbloom made the perfect comment the other day (on a completely
different thread), he said "The very first thing you must do (*before*
performing the test) is to validate the
conditions of the test. If instead, you go ahead and do the test and then
afterward complain that the test wasn't fair, it comes across like you are
trying to make excuses."
If I go into a customer installation to help set up a studio or update
them, there is no way that you are going to get a happy customer if they don't
calibrate their entire system. This is such an all or nothing deal, the RIP
can print perfect, dead on color, yet I've got people who are not even
calibrating their monitors and claiming a poor screen to print match, like
somehow the RIP will magically match the non-calibrated monitor. This lack of
understanding is still where a lot of people (end users and a suprising number
of pros) are, yet they are people who have the money to buy this software. If
they don't white balance their cameras, have calibrated monitors, scanners, or
printers, the dealer isn't going to be able to offer this customer a black box
that fixes everything. I cannot walk into an install like that and do
anything other than tell them they need to spend more money. Many people don't
want to hear this. Then you are assuming the customer has the confidence that
they can color correct, that they are not working in wide-gamut RGB with their
8 bit sRGB digital camera files, that they are not blowing out highlights in
scans by pegging all channels to 255, there are too many areas before print
where the user can screw up to say that the printer profiles (or RIP) are
junk, yet people bring me files to print and claim that they get better
results without a RIP. Epson is slamming black all over the noisy shadows in
your prints, whereas ImagePrint is brutally honest about extracting detail,
all you can do is tell the customer his scanner is lackluster and to get a new
one before expecting better prints. People are generally not receptive to that
comment, but it is the reality when you get into higher level printmaking. Now
lets throw in the learning curve of a RIP, the average Giclee studio or
photographer would rather be making prints and marketing than learning RIPs
and color theory. I can show someone in 20 minutes how to completely run
ImagePrint, its childs play. I can also sit down and teach you Postershop at
$1250 a day, your choice.....I'm also going to bring a DTP41 to install
Postershop, if I leave and the system prints poorly the customer feel like
they've been hosed, yet the RIP/printer combo needs profiling and now the
customer needs to buy some profiles (or more equipment) to get the job done.
People are generally not satisfied with "ok" color after dropping $3500 on a
CD-ROM. I may also need to profile Imageprint, in this case I simply print
the RGB targets, and generally a day later scan them after dry-down and
generate the profile. Extremely simple, and very simple to teach a customer.
No training on how to dial back total ink, black generation, etc...This whole
thing could be prevented by setting the expectation to the customer which I
always do before I meet with them, and while it isn't the same line that other
people may feed them, I'm speaking the truth and they don't feel screwed over
in the end. There is something to be said for ImagePrint and its simplicity,
and its lack of tweakability so to speak. Anyone with minimal knowledge can
profile and run ImagePrint, and most studios have their hired hands doing this
kind of thing. This is a product that is very easy to integrate in to a studio
and meets the customers expectations if every other part of the workflow is up
to par.
Neil, I respect everyone's knowledge around here, I'm simply speaking from my
own experiences.
Cris Daniels
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