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[OM] Re: why not - DIY printing

Subject: [OM] Re: why not - DIY printing
From: AG Schnozz <agschnozz@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 09:43:02 -0700 (PDT)
> First off sorry for picking up a old thread. 

Not a problem.  It was an orphaned thread, anyway.

> What do you think of the likely future introduction of a 17" wide
> HP Designjet with on demand profiling built in? Perhaps it is not a
> solution for you or my portrait volume work which I would agree is
> still best outsourced. But would it be an option for the fine arts
> side of your trade?

I think it's a great idea.  The biggest issue I run into with the
fine-art prints is loss of control AND bordered prints.  A fine-art
print really should be nuanced to death and outsourcing them to a lab
is where you lose that ultimate level of control.

As to cost-per-print:  One has to consider what is being gained and
lost in the equation too.  For example, for fine-art prints, I lose
control and huge prints cost a LOT!  If I keep outsourcing the
bread-and-butter printing to Miller's, which makes a lot of sense,
and get a high-end Pigment printer for home, how does that fit the
budget?  It doesn't.  It doesn't any more than getting a new digital
camera with higher pixel-counts.  My E-1 is a money-maker.  What
would be gained by getting a new Digital-WonderBrick?  It won't
really bring in more business than I can currently handle anyway. 
But what it does do is give me more options and raise the possiblity
of opening up new markets.

I am intruiged by what HP has introduced.  I've been a long-term user
of HP plotters and see how they've FINALLY applied some tricks of the
trade in their high-end ink-jet plotters in the photo-quality
printers.  However, I do not believe that any printer on the market
right now has "arrived".  It is very clear that Epson, HP and Canon
are all still developing their technologies and I don't consider
Pigment printing to have achieved a "maturity of design" yet.  If it
had "arrive", places like Miller's would be converting over to inkjet
for all their output--but that isn't happening yet.  Evidently there
are still cost, calibration, handling and reliability issues to
overcome.  If the high-volume, high-quality labs haven't converted
over yet, there probably is good reason--a reason that the
one-lungers are able or willing to overlook.

> I finally went with the Canon pro9000 as it appears
> to have less issues with only occasional use. Right now I don't
> know how much I will be putting through it and the pigment vs. dye
> ink argument was close enough to my eyes that machine reliability
> was paramount. 

I still use my "old" S-9000.  What a terrific printer.  Prints made
on Ilford Gallerie Classic hold up extremely well and are as
fade-resistant as I've ever encountered. The tonalities are wonderful
and the blacks are blacker than anything I've been able to produce in
a darkroom.  To control ink-costs, I use MIS bulk-inks, but that's
mostly due to the fact that I don't do any high-end printing on it
and the printer has been heisted by the family for daily use.  We
burn through as much as two reams a month and use it for generation
of posters and other display materials.  I need to get a new set of
cartridges--I've refilled this set so many times that it gets harder
and harder to plug the holes back up.

AG


       
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