Re: RIP software suggestions for desktop inkjets?
Re: RIP software suggestions for desktop inkjets?
- Subject: Re: RIP software suggestions for desktop inkjets?
- From: Carl Gosline <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 12:37:07 -0800
Hi everyone,
Thanks for sharing your cumulative knowledge on this topic, I really
appreciate your insights.
In restrospect, I have noticed that re-installation was not necessarily
the solution, as recently Gimp-Print did work again (without having
reinstalled) after having failed to work. When I originally experienced
the problem, I had started out in Painter (vs. 9, newest version) and
the print dialogue gave me a message that since my printer was not a
postscript printer, it was not going to print. At the time, I didn't
make note of the exact error message, thinking that it was Painter that
was at fault. I saved it out of Painter as a Photoshop file, opened it
in Photoshop (vs. CS) and resaved it as a Photoshop file thinking I
might get rid of any vestiges of Painters reluctance to print (maybe
this is magical thinking, but I thought it couldn't hurt) and it failed
to print properly from Photoshop as well (got a page of numerals.)
Today, I just opened that same PSD version and tried it again, and
voila! . . . it worked (again without reinstallation of Gimp). So I
tried the Painter version too ( a RIF file), and now I know what the
dialogue says, simply "Printer is not PostScript" (so that print option
is still a failure.)
Regarding Tyler's suggestions to track the problem (which does in fact
seem to be intermittent), I thank you for the suggestions. However the
info you provided seems to me to be slightly over my head, and while I
might be able to understand it if I put some time into it, I don't
really have the time to spare. Bills to pay, kids to raise, all that
and much more, I'm sure you can relate. Don't get me wrong, as I
certainly do appreciate the time you folks put into developing the open
source goodies, and Gimp has helped me considerably. I just need
something I can count on, and that will provide me a higher level of
control color-wise. I guess that's why I put out my initial question.
It sounds like the GIMP issue is OS X related, so maybe I'll experience
the same issues with commercial RIP software, or perhaps not.
I am considering upgrading to the Epson 200 and ImagePrint (thanks for
your suggestions, Ulf and Angus. ( and I do use a monitor calibrator,
the ColorVision Spider 1, with OptiCal and Profiler Plus )
Does any one else have experience with ImagePrint for desktop printers?
Thanks again to all involved,
Carl
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Carl Gosline
Tigertype Print and Design
Talk 415-641-4580
Fax 415-641-4181
email: email@hidden
On Dec 3, 2004, at 3:18 PM, Tyler Blessing wrote:
On Dec 2, 2004, at 8:31 PM, Robert L Krawitz wrote:
From: Carl Gosline <email@hidden>
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 18:17:07 -0800
Hi Robert,
I'm using Gimp-Print 4.2.7 with OS X vs. 10.3.6.
Gimp-Print seems to just stop working sometimes. Either prints
fail to
finish processsing (endless spinning beachball) or I get prints of
a
page full of numerals, rather than a bitmap image. Reinstallation
solves it for a while, then kaflooie - gone again.
Thanks for your interest,
I'm the project lead for Gimp-Print, that's why I'm interested.
We've received a lot of reports of problems (typically very slow
printing or prints that fail to finish processing) with 10.3.6. This
suggests some kind of communication problem. It's not apparent how
reinstalling Gimp-Print would resolve this problem, although I'm not
inclined to disbelieve you. The reason I say that it's not apparent
how reinstalling Gimp-Print would resolve this problem is that
Gimp-Print is simply a CUPS filter that reads data from an upstream
filter and converts it into ESCP raster format for your printer. If
reinstalling it resolves the problem, then clearly it's doing
something that clears the problem. If this kind of thing happens with
Gimp-Print but not with another driver, then I really have to wonder
what's going on here. The 1270 is a particularly well-supported
printer; I personally have an 870 (which is identical except for the
carriage width) and did most of the development of the 4.2 baseline on
that printer.
I've copied our Mac expert (Tyler Blessing), who may have some ideas
about this.
--
Robert Krawitz <email@hidden>
I am inclined to agree with Robert: just because it works after
reinstalling it does not imply that reinstalling cured the problem (it
may be coincidental). Due to the nature of how CUPS (the print
spooler) works with Mac OS X there are a number of potential failure
points that would not necessarily produce an easily diagnosable
symptom. The simplified, typical print job chain looks something like
this:
User invokes `print' command-->
Application `draws' into a `graphics context'-->
Apple-provided CUPS filter converts `graphics context' to
cups-raster-->
Gimp-Print CUPS filter converts cups-raster to
printer-specific control code-->
Apple-provided CUPS backend sends data stream to printer
hardware.
You may notice that there are many actors, and the Gimp-Print portion
is just one of them, although typically it is the most CPU dependent
one. Naturally, a bug in any part of this chain may have dire
consequences for the end product. The task at hand here is to isolate
the problem, which may or may not be a straight forward task to carry
out.
A lot of `communication' problems are attributable to problems with
the CUPS backend. One way to test this is to use an alternate backend
and see if the problem(s) persist. If you are printing over USB you
can try the `usbtb' backend available on the Gimp-Print download page.
Or, if you are using a network-class backend (such as lpd) you might
be able to use a different one (such as pap, or ipp).
If the problem is from upstream then you can try printing with a
different application, or forcing the use of a different `CUPS raster'
filter. If you print from a typical `cocoa' class app then you will
likely always be using the `cgpdftoraster' filter which in the past
has proven quite reliable. You can force the use of a different filter
by saving your output to PostScript and dropping the resulting .ps
file onto the printer queue window. This would invoke
`pstocupsraster'.
Of course, the biggest problem troubleshooting an intermittent problem
is the unreliability of reproducing it. One useful approach is to
enable `debug' level logging in CUPS. Then after the intermittent
problem occurs you can go and look at the CUPS error log and see if it
is enlightening.
Tyler
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