Digital BW, The Print

Hi there,
I've been following this forum for a couple of weeks. I'm trying to make a
decision (there is such a thing as too much information!)
I'm a commercial photographer and in general don't make a living out of
print sales- prints tend to be just a small part of sales. However I am kind
of a perfectionist and am always interested in providing the highest quality
I can and I have always loved to print B/W so this is both for professional
consideration as well as a keen interest in making beautiful digital (IJ)
prints. I just purchased the 2200 and have an old 1200. As far as I've been
able to gather so far I'm not going to be happy with Epson driver and
subsequent grayscale prints. Options so far appear to be... (I'm on a Mac.)
A.  Getting custom profiles for various paper combinations. This alone
probably won't get me the perfection I'm looking for. Completely neutral
please!!! No color casts or shifting please! Don't know if that's possible.
Apparently won't necessarily solve metamerism anyway.
B.  IP5 RIP - expensive (sort of) and mixed reviews for Mac as well as
little documentation...ie "it's difficult." That scares me. I can't handle
endless toying with no support. Will still need the custom profiles.
C.  Piezo- I can devote my 1200 to this purpose. Software not too expensive
(do I also need a RIP???) Inks look pricey. Reviews of free profiles sound
as if they're good. Is there something looming on the horizon here early
march?? Is this ultimately an expensive proposition??
D.  Epson driver- Sticking to my Epson driver and printer color management
and gritting my teeth. BTW I've toyed with the Gray Balancer and found my
printer actually has a nice smooth grayscale but there's a slight cyan cast
I can't improve upon... plus Gray Balancer  doesn't print out of OSX.
Doesn't solve the metamerism problem.

Would anyone like to make any helpful comments or suggestions. Am I leaving
out other options? I'm stuck and would truly appreciate a bit of help in
summary.
Thanks very much.

Sue

Sue Tallon Photography
suetallon@... 


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