Proofing duo-, tri- and quadtone on iPF6100

[nemophoto]

I may need to proof some duotone and quadtone images. Does anyone know if this is accuarately possible on a Canon iPF6100 without using a RIP? I have an older Epson 4000 with the Colorburst RIP and experimented with an image and saw noticeable gradation banding with the quadtone versus sending the image as a B&W CMYK image.

At this point, speed and output of my Canon is superior to my older Epson in many respects, so I'm curious whether printing via Photoshop and it's management is very accurate. It  seemed accuate, but I'm wondering if its actually IS.

Thanks,
Nemo

[Scott Martin]

I may need to proof some duotone and quadtone images. Does anyone know if this is accuarately possible on a Canon iPF6100 without using a RIP?

Absolutely. You'll need to choose your proofing paper wisely, use excellent profiles, and use the appropriate color management settings and rendering intent but yes, you can certainly get great results from the iPF or Epson printers without a RIP. There are even methods of pre-qualifying your printing process for SWOP or GRACoL certification. Lots of geek talk to go into if you really want to go there. A RIP takes care of these details (paper suggestions, profiles, rendering intent, etc) and makes it easier on the common end user. So if you are the type of person who is willing to tackle the details yourself you can get great results and trade some time for cost of a RIP. If you do, proceed with caution, test throughly and avoid screwing up an important print run. If you've got a job that's about to goto press it might be well worth the cost to get a proof made that you know you can rely upon, and work towards getting your proofing system up to speed for next time.

[nemophoto]

Absolutely. You'll need to choose your proofing paper wisely, use excellent profiles, and use the appropriate color management settings and rendering intent but yes, you can certainly get great results from the iPF or Epson printers without a RIP. There are even methods of pre-qualifying your printing process for SWOP or GRACoL certification. Lots of geek talk to go into if you really want to go there. A RIP takes care of these details (paper suggestions, profiles, rendering intent, etc) and makes it easier on the common end user. So if you are the type of person who is willing to tackle the details yourself you can get great results and trade some time for cost of a RIP. If you do, proceed with caution, test throughly and avoid screwing up an important print run. If you've got a job that's about to goto press it might be well worth the cost to get a proof made that you know you can rely upon, and work towards getting your proofing system up to speed for next time.

Thanks Scott. I've been contemplating the EFI eXpress Color RIP for my 6100, but considering I already own two other RIPS for my 4000 (Colorburst and Ergo StudioPrint), I wasn't keen on acquiring yet another. I actually like the Colorburst RIP, but it doesn't work with my Canon, and my StudioPrint is RGB only (versus the postscript version)., and has so-so support for the iPF 6100. And it's truly VERY geeky, since you have to create everything from scratch for the Canon.