New Printer Specs
New Printer Specs
- Subject: New Printer Specs
- From: J Richter <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:33:56 -0500
Re: I think the main issue would be usability. Adding in functions only
a very small fraction of users would be able to comprehend and all the
others burn their fingers on (think back to color management in PS 5 for
a short while) doesn't make much sense from a commercial point of view.
I would agree that more options to the mass-market user is more
confusing than providing one thing that works generally and reasonably
well for the majority of the consumers of that product. Part of the
issue is that digital cameras generate sRGB files and the printer
manufacturers have programmed an all-purpose internal converter to
process that to CMYK(+ additional Red, Green and Blue inks and/or Lt
Magenta, Light Cyan, Photo Black and other shades of gray) depending on
cartridge configuration.
I'm in the minority (though not alone) when it comes to wanting to print
press-ready CMYK files with spot Pantone colors to your basic wide
format Epson, and to expect an accurate proof. My older Epsons only have
CMYK inks and though one would think a CMYK file should print fine, it
gets converted twice along the way from RGB in Camera to CMYK in
Photoshop (reducing gamut once here) and then converting those CMYK
files to its own format, (the printer interprets it as RGB and converts
it to its own version of CMYK and other ink combinations) and generates
the lousy output we are all getting without custom profiles and letting
the specific applications such as Illustrator or InDesign or Quark
handle the color management.
RE: If you want inklimiting you have to go advanced and get a CMYK
driver (often postscript is just an added bonus) for the simple reason
that you send a different stream of data to the printer - CMYK as
opposed to RGB in quickdraw/GDI.
I'm not sure why an alternative data stream such as CMYK data would be
so difficult to offer as a 2nd driver to the standard RGB that comes
with all printers. The inks are already there, just a matter of turning
left or right when sending the file (provided the programming is there.
- goes back to point one above, right? How many users would want this
and is it worth spending the $ on the development of it?)
Running Gutenprint on a Mac does let you do both - it is a RIP sort of
printer driver along with many drop-down options that do let you set
densities and ink limits. The big problem is no one has publicly posted
any settings that are proven to work in any particular combination; and
the fathers of Gutenprint are not savvy in color managed printing
workflow. I truly wish they were, as that could make that driver a
powerful and still free, alternative to commercial RIPs, as it's built
into OSX.4 as an Apple default. The combinations of settings is just
astronomical.
Jurgen Richter
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