Digital Printing with BowHausTruBW Mac and Canon Printers

[Adamphotoman]

If you want to get Wet Darkroom look and digital control, Wow! Stunning...but it does take time to learn.

[djdister]

What takes time to learn? A google search on those terms turns up nothing. Is this gibberish or what?


If you want to get Wet Darkroom look and digital control, Wow! Stunning...but it does take time to learn.

[Light Guru]

What takes time to learn? A google search on those terms turns up nothing. Is this gibberish or what?

Yup the only google search result for "bowhaustrubw" is this thread.

Post a link.

[Darin Boville]

http://bowhaus.com/index.php4

--Darin

[Tyler Boley]

Info is here-
http://www.trueblackandwhite.com

[djdister]

Wow is right. Two different websites for the same "company" - software that only works on Canon printers, and only on a Mac. Obviously a real start up operation. You'd be better off going with Piezography if you want to take a leap in the direction of monochrome inkjet printing...

http://www.piezography.com/PiezoPress/

[Tyler Boley]

It's very different from Piezography, which I have used from it's introduction. It's based on the Gutenprint printing system, very much like QTR. But QTR is specifically for Epsons, TBW just for Canons. BowHaus is a high end digital services company, and this RIP is a viable option. It's been used and slowly evolved from an early RIP that worked with other models, to this, which I know they use for producing B&W exhibition work. They are not a start up, but some very experienced and capable people. Their interest is not in developing and supporting software, so you won't see much visiblity about it, or updating, or hyping. My friends at K2 Press in Austin use the older RIP for B&W work with Epsons, and another friend in Atlanta, John Dean, does excellent work with a 44" Canon and TBW. Both use and excel at Piezography as well.
Tyler

edit- I should add that Jon was looking at using it as the driver when he was trying to develop Piezography for the Canons.

[Adamphotoman]

Just as Quad tone Rip takes time if you want to get into the nuts and bolts of it so does Bowhaus Tru Black and White for Canon Printers.
Using it is one thing...
I have used Epson and Pizography from the early days.

It is all about control.

Higher ink densities with the Canon ink set. TBW Profiles and different mechanics for adjusting curves [different than PS curves].
Highlight, Shadow, density and contrast control.

Hey in the wet darkroom I experimented with wet photo paper contrast - self masking [long Exposures on developer soaked Agfa paper] in the late 1970's
I have been around.

This is the first time that I am impressed with monochrome Digital printing since Jon Cone and Roy Harrington...

[Darin Boville]

This is the first time that I am impressed with monochrome Digital printing since Jon Cone and Roy Harrington...

Would love to hear your thought regarding comparison to Piezo...

--Darin

[Adamphotoman]

I have not used Piezography for awhile. I started with a slow Epson 3000 and 4 shades of Black. It worked great when it worked. Most of the adjustments had to be done in PS and testing had to be done. Cleaning cycles and clogged heads were a constant problem. I used a Wells River paper renames William Turner. Then I went from Epson 9500 / 9600 / 9880 to an iPF8300

The TruBW allows for some control over brightness, contrast, highlight and shadow detail. Linearization, adjusting ink levels, and curves for each shade are more involved. I do heavy curve adjustment in PS.

15 years ago the Canon thermal printheads or bubble-jets were not as good as the Piezo head technology, however they have caught up and in some ways are leading the pack. After 15 months of constant use, I am finally replacing ink cartridges.
I have never had a clog either. The paper handling leaves a bit to be desired, and the Bowhaus software does not help here. I picked up the software to make monotone images of a friends panoramas.

I scanned her 3 foot prints with a Betterlight Super 6 K HS , 4 Alzo2000 lampheads using 12 Metal Halide bulbs and a 360 Apo Ronar. These can be output up to 100 inches.

The Tru Black and White software does not allow for customized roll paper sizes. Presently you can choose from presets such as 17 X 60 inches. If your image is say 50 inches long you need to reload or else
you will waste 10 inches of paper. It does allow for 32 pass unidirectional printing. So the quality is awesome. I soon learned to let the software run while it is printing. Also if one plays around in the software while it is spooling
then you will run into problems. For instance if you go and look at ink level setting from a different paper profile, then the spooling switches to that profile. In other words it could switch you to photo black midstream.

[Darin Boville]

O.K., great. Thanks. The paper size issue you mention si weird--what possible reason could there be for the software to care about paper size?

--Darin

[Tin Can]

I wish it worked with Pixma Pro 1 which is an excellent printer and all I need or have space for.

[Adamphotoman]

107288
These are the only canvas sizes available