Digital Prints

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Mastering Digital Printing
Using Specialized Drivers and Software
Some of the highest-quality black-and-white digital prints being made today are the result
of specialized printer drivers or RIPs. Popular examples include: ImagePrint (ColorByte),
InkJet Control/OpenPrintmaker (BowHaus), PixelPixasso (R9), QuadToneRIP (Roy
Harrington), and StudioPrint (ErgoSoft).
Using Specialized Printers
Non-inkjet printers have their own quirks when it comes to monochrome printing. “With
LightJets, Lambdas, Frontiers, and other similar digital imaging devices,” explains C.
David Tobie, “the trick for black and white is to get a really accurate color profile for the
device made and edit that profile yourself, if necessary, to nail the black-and-white or near
black-and-white tones you want. And then apply that profile to your images before sending
them out for printing on the machine you have built the profile for.”
Inkjet is not the only way to print digital black-and-white, but for many, it’s currently the
method of choice. While there are no (at this writing) true, all black-and-white OEM
inkjet printers, Epson raised some eyebrows with the introduction of its UltraChrome
inkjet printer line a couple of years ago. As already mentioned, the Epson Stylus Photo
2200 and Stylus Pro 7600/9600 were groundbreaking by including the first use of seven
ink colors (in separate tanks) with two different blacks—one full-strength, one diluted.
Brooklyn, New York, fine-art
photographer Amadou Diallo uses
ErgoSoft’s StudioPrint RIP to produce
his digital black-and-white prints on an
Epson Stylus Pro 9000 using
PiezoTone inks. Sunflower is shown.
“With StudioPrint,” says Diallo,
“quadtone printmakers now have
unprecedented control over their
printer’s behavior combined with the
production gains offered by
professional layout features. The output
is among some of the finest printing
I’ve ever done, darkroom or digital.”
© 2001 Amadou Diallo
www.diallophotography.com