? Can I use the 16 bit plugin when my layout is set-up in PS CS2 Indesign? If so how? If not what part of PS CS2 Premium software can I set up a 2 page layout for greeting cards so I can use the 16 bit plugin? Thanks KSG
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Short answer:
You can't use the Plugin when printing from InDesign. Canon provides a plugin for photoshop and for Digital Photo Professional.
Long answer:
It is a little bit more involved to answer the question whether you can print in 16 bit from applications or not. As far as I have seen from the Windows API documentation, pixels are represented as ARGB values. Each component uses an 8 bit value and as a consequence, it is not possible to draw pixels that use 16bit values with the standard system drawing routines (that is, neither to screen nor to a printer) without converting them to 8 bit first.
Things might be different for applications that use different drawing methods (like OpenGL or DirectX) but both of them are not relevant for printing. One thing that might allow passing 16bit graphics to a printer might be for an application to generate a Postscript print job. Frankly, I have no idea which limitations apply to images included in those.
Bottom line: printing is limited to 8 bit on Windows, possibly with the exception of Postscript print jobs.
As far as I have seen from the API documentation, things are a little better for OS X. It's color representation is a lot more powerful. NSColor uses float values for color components (and is fully color managed, i.e. conversion between color spaces is already built into the core functionality). Printing does not differ from painting pixel to the screen and all components that I looked at used seem to support the NSColor representation. Even Carbon (Quickdraw) uses 16 bit component values.
Bottom line: printing 16 bit images should be theoretically possible on OS X. Ultimately, it boils down to the capabilities of the printer driver.
Conclusion: To the best of my knowledge, 16 bit printing is theoretically possible on OS X and impossible on Windows. Please note that my API knowledge on both platforms is limited, though.
However, I can hardly imagine that 16 bits substantially improve the quality of a printout. What might be difference between the printer driver and the 16bit plugin is the printing algorithm (driver optimized for speed, plugin for quality).
I guess, we'll get to know the real limitations when ColorByte releases a PostScript version of ImagePrint that supports the Canon ipf 5000.
Hope that helps.
Please note: if you are a software developer with knowledge in this field (printing api on either Windows or OS X), I'd be happy if you corrected any error I may have made. Thank you.