At 11:56 AM 10/04/2006, Evan Ruff wrote:
[snip]
>... A lot of people said that they work in raw and
>then either have their enlargements done by an external service or do them
>themselves on a wide-format printer.
Work in RAW, yes. Submit prints in RAW format to printers for
output, absolutely not. Most printers would have no idea what to do
with a particular RAW print. They assume you've tweaked/manipulated
the photo and have then supplied it to them in a format they can work
with. You should check with whatever service you're thinking of
using to find out what file formats they accept/require.
>I was wondering which external services can work within the RAW framework
>and do the best job enlarging digital images (say, 16x20 or 20x28).
See above.
> Also,
>the RIP engine of the printer was mentioned as a very important piece of the
>puzzle. Which printers do the best job in the 8x10 or 5x7 arena for at home
>prints?
This is a lot like asking "Which wine goes best with roast
chicken?" The answer has a lot to do with taste, and there's no
truly objective measure. Since so much pre-press manipulation can be
done, reviewers (if they're doing their job) will usually control for
every variable they can think of, taking and then outputing pictures
of standard colour targets with known values, but there's still the
"we really liked the *luminous* quality of the output on the
HyperPrinter 88000" kind of remarks that can be a frustrating
experience for people looking for a good printer. Taste, taste,
taste. I'd suggest you tire-kick a few if you've got the chance --
see if people at your local camera shop or electronics joint will let
you dump a couple of your prints out just to see what the printers
can do. If you haven't profiled your monitor etc., you may be
surprised at the apparent differences in the quality/colour of the
print compared to what you *thought* you saw on-screen.
Sorry, I know that's not quite the answer you were looking for. The
above considerations (amongst others) explain why I still haven't
invested in a dedicated photo printer.
Garth
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