Finally something for Canon IPF users !

MVNelson · Mar 28, 2009

I have been getting pretty nice D-negs with my canon ipf 5000 using the photoshop plugin 16 bit driver and PDN. Things went well until I tried to get to pure palladium prints and ran out of UV filtration. There is no QTR for Canon printers. There is no way in the standard driver to get the type of control over the ink channels as with QTR. Most RIPS for Canon were too complicated and way to expensive. Enter TrueBW from Bowhaus,inc @ http://www.TrueBlackandwhite.com ....ers thus far. Update forth coming.... Miles

pschwart · Mar 28, 2009

Mvnelson said:
I have been getting pretty nice D-negs with my canon ipf 5000 using the photoshop plugin 16 bit driver and PDN. Things went well until I tried to get to pure palladium prints and ran out of UV filtration. There is no QTR for Canon printers. There is no way in the standard driver to get the type of control over the ink channels as with QTR. Most RIPS for Canon were too complicated and way to expensive. Enter TrueBW from Bowhaus,inc @ http://www.TrueBlackandwhite.com .... find a link for a trial download, either ...

MVNelson · Mar 29, 2009

pschwart said:
This would be interesting, but sounds like it's Mac only:
True Black and White™ requires Mac OS 10.4 or greater
Shame on them for ignoring the rest of us. I couldn't find a link for a trial download, either ...

You have to call the number there on the web site andthe customer service rep will email you the address and temporary access code and password. Also TrueBW is only for Canon/Mac OsX users but Bow-Haus, inc's original software is called IJC/OPM which they advertise for Epson/Windows/Mac ...

I've fiddled with TrueBW program and currently reading the manuals for constructing "profiles" . What I am particularly keen on is the Linearization program which sounds pretty robust...
Still haven't decided to lay out the $249.00 :confused:

I use the virtualization program Parallels to go back and forth between OsX/Linux/WindowXp on my Apple machines ....

Miles

pschwart · Mar 31, 2009

Mvnelson said:
You have to call the number there on the web site andthe customer service rep will email you the address and temporary access code and password. Also TrueBW is only for Canon/Mac OsX users but Bow-Haus, inc's original software is called IJC/OPM which they advertise for Epson/Windows/Mac ...

I've fiddled with TrueBW program and currently reading the manuals for constructing "profiles" . What I am particularly keen on is the Linearization program which sounds pretty robust...
Still haven't decided to lay out the $249.00 :confused:

I use the virtualization program Parallels to go back and forth between OsX/Linux/WindowXp on my Apple machines ....

Miles

You have to call the number ...

This is no way to get users to adopt a product. As for IJC/OPM, I kept waiting
for Bowhaus to add support for more current printers, but it never happened.
Looking at the list of supported printers, most have been obsolete for years.
I finally gave up on these guys. I would like to have the advertised control over Canon printers, but I'm not willing to change computing platforms to get it. And before plunking down $249 I'd need to know that the software will get regular updates and maintenance.

MVNelson · Mar 31, 2009

pschwart said:
You have to call the number ...

This is no way to get users to adopt a product. As for IJC/OPM, I kept waiting
for Bowhaus to add support for more current printers, but it never happened.
Looking at the list of supported printers, most have been obsolete for years.
I finally gave up on these guys. I would like to have the advertised control over Canon printers, but I'm not willing to change computing platforms to get it. And before plunking down $249 I'd need to know that the software will get regular updates and maintenance.

I agree with you on most of your points. I am told that they have a rewrite of their software coming out soon. As for the True Black and White software specifically written for Canon IPF printers, I am in my thirty day trial period. In just 3 short work sessions I feel real comfortable with the program and the inkjet prints I have printed with it are superb. I simply reprinted BW images which I did previously with the bundled printer driver (which I and others thought looked quite good) and my preliminary thoughts are wow! these are a significantly better. As for the potential for making digital negatives(which is what I am after) this also looks promising. I printed 2 test targets on Pictorico (1 with light gray, gray, k inks and the 2nd with the same + yellow) last night and this a.m. did pure palladium print of the two 56 step targets which are in the wash as I write. What I see ... wow ... very smooth tonal gradation and easily hits pure palladium range with both. I'll dry them today and read with densitometer this p.m. and run it through the program's linearization module. More on this later. I'll start a new threat 'cause I'll need some help on tweaking individual curve shapes and optimizing ink limits that maybe the QTR experts can help me with. The good news is there is no text files, everything is graphical and very well thought out ( See the short videos @ www.Trueblackandwhite.com ) I'm quite pragmatic about tools and methods and don't buy easily, yet so far this looks well worth exploring.

Again I am not selling anything I 'm simply trying to find a way to get maximum control of my Canon IPF printer and the TrueBW program has gotten me further in that direction. The $249 ... I got 27 days to decide about ....

pschwart · Mar 31, 2009

Mvnelson said:
I agree with you on most of your points. I am told that they have a rewrite of their software coming out soon. As for the True Black and White software specifically written for Canon IPF printers, I am in my thirty day trial period. In just 3 short work sessions I feel real comfortable with the program and the inkjet prints I have printed with it are superb. I simply reprinted BW images which I did previously with the bundled printer driver (which I and others thought looked quite good) and my preliminary thoughts are wow! these are a significantly better. As for the potential for making digital negatives(which is what I am after) this also looks promising. I printed 2 test targets on Pictorico (1 with light gray, gray, k inks and the 2nd with the same + yellow) last night and this a.m. did pure palladium print of the two 56 step targets which are in the wash as I write. What I see ... wow ... very smooth tonal gradation and easily hits pure palladium range with both. I'll dry them today and read with densitometer this p.m. and run it through the program's linearization module. More on this later. I'll start a new threat 'cause I'll need some help on tweaking individual curve shapes and optimizing ink limits that maybe the QTR experts can help me with. The good news is there is no text files, everything is graphical and very well thought out ( See the short videos @ www.Trueblackandwhite.com ) I'm quite pragmatic about tools and methods and don't buy easily, yet so far this looks well worth exploring.

Again I am not selling anything I 'm simply trying to find a way to get maximum control of my Canon IPF printer and the TrueBW program has gotten me further in that direction. The $249 ... I got 27 days to decide about ....

This is good info. which Canon printer are you using?

MVNelson · Mar 31, 2009

well , my test targets are dry. My simple eyeball test says I need to be somewhere between 30% yellow and 0% yellow addition to nail down my ink limit phase @ which point I'll submit the result(s) to the linearization module. The smooth gradation steps that prints with the steps are.... smooth. I see no problem with grain or digital noise with the individual steps. I spoke at length with one of the architects of the TrueBW program today. His enthusiasm to join my project to produce fine digital negatives with my Canon IPF 5000 was a super surprise. He gave me a short lecture on ink density curves, linearization, and ink limits. The new goal is to add a step in the program that makes construction of digital negatives using a starter profile for that purpose . He even offered to send profiles , targets, and use their resources to analyze my target prints to get this right. I'm a practicing surgeon and any day I can get a competent consultation is a good day. This was a good day! More when I print a calibrated linearized step and subsequent pictorial subject. I did mention that there were Canon printer users that are Windows user that would like to see this program on that platform. I looked " under the hood" of the program and for the most part this is unix executable (linux, BSD, OsX, Unix etc) so ....

Miles

RobertP · Apr 2, 2009

I've been looking at printers for some time now. I really like what I've seen from the IPF printers and their 12 ink system. This is great news. For black and white prints the TrueBW program produces great results. But I'm far from an expert on this, I'm just going by what I've seen in person. Now I wish I wouild have bought their 24" IPF 6100 back at the beginning of the year when they were on sale for $1800

MVNelson · Apr 2, 2009

RobertP said:
I've been looking at printers for some time now. I really like what I've seen from the IPF printers and their 12 ink system. This is great news. For black and white prints the TrueBW program produces great results. But I'm far from an expert on this, I'm just going by what I've seen in person. Now I wish I wouild have bought their 24" IPF 6100 back at the beginning of the year when they were on sale for $1800

The iPF are great printers. They are a pretty good deal also.

MVNelson · Apr 9, 2009

Well, I had to time to work on my project with True Black and White software. I only had time to make my first pictorial print and I posted in the gallery . The smooth linear tonal rendition is what was hoping for but the image turned out 1/2 f-stop too dark which we are working on via a soft proofing work flow. This is a pure palladium print with no adjustment curve on the image file which I imported from photoshop as a negative (inverted) file. The programmer has already revised the original program to allow making digital negatives a few steps more directly. The linearization process and profile making so far is looking good. I will be beta testing the revised prgram and will follow up.

Miles

banksy · Nov 10, 2010

Miles, do you have any further thoughts on the use of the Bowhaus RIP for creating digital negatives? Did you ever get a chance to try the revised program?

donbga · Nov 10, 2010

banksy said:
Miles, do you have any further thoughts on the use of the Bowhaus RIP for creating digital negatives? Did you ever get a chance to try the revised program?

You may wish to take note that Miles made his post in 2009 and may not still be connected to this thread, though hopefully he is.

Don

banksy · Nov 10, 2010

I did see it was a while ago Don, just thought I could maybe bring this thread back to life. Would be interesting to know how Miles is getting along with the Bowhaus RIP. Fingers crossed.

MVNelson · Feb 18, 2011

A belated return to this old thread .... The Bowhaus RIP proved to be very promising for making digital negatives. I made several successful pt/pd and kallitype prints using it. The problem was that there were several bugs that nagged me. Despite the work arounds I developed I stopped using the program when the permanent fixes promised by the software developer never materialized. I moved back to PDN. That said I am curious enough to take another look at it this spring. I might try to re-contact the developer and see if the fixes ever happened.

MVNelson · Feb 18, 2011

I just checked and there is a version 2.0 and i appear to be eligible for the free upgrade .... hmmm now I am interested ! I will acquire and try

66Photo · Mar 11, 2011

I have an ipf8300 and I can't figure out how to print on OHP film for digital negatives. The printer does not seem able to detect the clear film to determine the cut sheet size. I even emailed Canon and they advised that if the material is clear, then the printer can't detect it. How are you guys doing this?

MVNelson · Mar 13, 2011

I really haven't had much problem with Pictorico which is very slightly milky or Canon's 'Transparent Clear Film' which is quite clear. Every so often I would get a sheet that was not "recognized" but if I played around with how I feed it in the tray slot and adjust the size slider a little to insure very straight in feeding everything was okay. I also made sure the little cut corner was not on the end going into the printer first .... My understanding is that the Transparent Clear Film was engineered for use with the iPF series printers....

MVNelson · Mar 13, 2011

The version 2.0 of the TrueBW software is looking good and the previous mentioned bugs seem to be gone.....

Finally something for Canon IPF users !

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