Raw & Post Processing, Printing > Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks
Lack of 16bit print
alifatemi:
in LR for Mac, you can choose 16bit output in Print module, in Windows, you can't; what is the drawback for Windows users?
Bart_van_der_Wolf:
--- Quote from: alifatemi on January 03, 2014, 06:17:10 am ---in LR for Mac, you can choose 16bit output in Print module, in Windows, you can't; what is the drawback for Windows users?
--- End quote ---
Hi,
Is that with the same printer driver? Most printer drivers only offer an 8-bit/channel pipeline.
Cheers,
Bart
hjulenissen:
I have Windows XPS drivers for my Canon printer that are supposedly 16 bits. This appears as a device of its own.
I have no idea if Lightroom makes any benefit from this, though.
-h
alifatemi:
Sorry I had to mention my printer which is Epson11880.
TonyW:
An interesting question as there seems to be many opinions about what 16 bit printing brings to the table, many ‘experts’ seem to be of the opinion that advantages are minimal if at all apparent.
As a Windows user all printers I have tried only support an 8 bit pipeline therefore I cannot comment on what I may be losing - if anything. I have seen one example from an Epson 3880 (Mac OS) comparing the same image 16 bit printing enabled and 8 bit. The 16 bit did display a slightly better transition of colour in certain areas, but I had to look very hard and closely to see these differences.
I do not think that the problem lies with Windows not supporting 16 bit print pipeline but rather the printer manufacturers not providing 16 bit print drivers for other than a Mac environment. Windows has had 16 bit print support since Vista and Windows server 2008 and I understand that it was also possible to ‘update’ the previous OS XP and Server 2003 to get that support.
If I understand correctly LR talks to the OS which passes to the print driver and if the print driver supports 16 bit which seems to be the case for many Epson printers (Mac OS only) then you are good to go. The problem seems to be that the printer manufacturers have not bothered to enable 16 bit in their drivers for Windows therefore no choice in LR.
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