Re: Birmy 5.2 vs. Epson Driver

[Ken K <ellipsis@concentric.net>]

Rafe B. wrote:
> 
> At 01:42 AM 6/12/99 -0700, Ken K wrote:
> >Rafe B. wrote:

> Don't tell this to Mr. Tobie, but I
> actually went back to Borders and bought the Blatner/Fraser
> book...

Heh, heh, heh... There's a lot of good info in their books, I always
recommend them. I'm a "Work-in-RGB-as-long-as-possible" kinda guy, so I
enjoy their books. :)

> There is a 1440 dpi setting on the RIP driver control panel,
> but the software ignores it, and prints at 360x360 if I
> try to use it.  If I choose 720x720, it uses that, but I
> find the results quite unsatisfactory, noticeably poorer
> than the Epson driver at the same setting.

OK. I've never used it with a 1440-capable printer, so I was just
guessing. Sounds like you've stumbled upon a bug in the program.

> But I'm
> not in a position to pay $1000 or more for a RIP, unless
> I can see some really dazzling benefits.

I'm with you there... I got by with SuperPrint for a couple of years,
until I started running into too many things it woludn't RIP properly.
It DID have one good quality - it interpreted the PostScript and then
apparently handed it off to the standard EPSON driver, so the dithering
was sweet, but the colors went through the CMYK-RGB-CcMmYK gauntlet.
 
> I didn't know that this was a "CMYK" RIP,
> in particular.

I've since been corrected on this point by 'CD'. Acording to him, the
Birmy handles RGB just fine. I've never had occasion to try it. It's
good to know.
 
> I would expect (though I haven't tried) that the RIP
> would do a far better job at printing CMYK files than
> the Epson driver.  However, until the basic resolution/
> dithering issues are resolved, there's no point moving
> to that next stage of experimentation.

I'm a little disappointed in the dithering myself, but it gets me by. 

> >> I don't see any particular color controls in this
> >> RIP.  In fact, nothing at all for "tweaking" the
> >> CMYK behavior.  Was I expecting too much?
> >
> >Perhaps. I think the RIPs that have color control are in the "Over $500
> >Club".

'CD' got me here too, he said that there *are* color controls, it's just
that *I've* never found the color controls yet. Hopefully I'll get a
chance to break out the 'Fine Manual' and look for them soon. 

> Lordy knows why Birmy couldn't have just made it
> available as a download from their web site. 

I wondered about that very same thing, because when I purchased the
product (mail order) the first thing I noticed is that the Demo CD and
the purchased product are one and the same - it's the validation floppy
that makes the difference.

> I've
> downloaded some 15 MB demos before...  not fun,
> but the computer doesn't mind staying up all night.

It's a good thing! Mine stands night watch on the digital frontier quite
often. Lots of large downloads out there these days. Netscape 4.xx, NT
Service Pack 4...

Ken
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