Mike, (correct me if I'm wrong Nij!) the original piezo pluggin was originally developed for the epson 3000 and then the 1160. Amongst other things it offered a pseudo increase in print resolution by making the head make another pass and fill in the dots from the native resolution. In order to make the inks work with different papers it used a proprietry system of non-icc profiling. To match screen to prints involved making a custom curve in PS softproof. This carried over to the newer printers and spawned the pro pluggin for the 7000 and 9000 series. Other ink manufacturers (MIS) also came out with inks of matching densities which for a lot less cash gave you inks to work with the pluggin Cone then developed some new inks which didn't really match the pluggin. There is now no real need for the dither and resolution machinations of the pluggin so cone has developed a system which uses the original print driver through its own icc profile sets for ink/paper combos. The price will vary on how many profiles you choose to buy. It will also work on the Canon 9000 as well as the usual epsons with the added benefit of working on glossy paper due to the higher temperature of the ink output. The main question is when <g> Other RIP/solutions exist. For Mac only Bowhause do the IJC which allows you to use any inks in any paper and tone and create custom profiles, cheap and open ended. Roy Harrington www.harrington.com has come up with a freeware solution for Mac OsX and linux which has similar properties. www.bwguys.com the original developers of the cone system have a rip and toneable inkset available. Ergosoft have a new quad rip out which allows you use any inks as and how you like.
As to printers, rumours abound of a 3000 replacement but no news. For BW it would be possible to get a refurb 7000, buy bulk ink (or use MIS bulk ink feeder) and an open ended rip and control everything yourself. Julian =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
