Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Colour Management => Topic started by: widmark on February 24, 2022, 01:22:27 am
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Hello, sometime listener, first time caller.
I have a Canon 4100 and a Mac M1. I also have an i1Basic Pro 3.
I'm doing fine art/photography printing and hope to also do occasional proofing. I'd also like to be able to make my own profiles.
I've been using the Canon Professional Print & Layout software and it looks great but has limitations obviously. I need to be able to print PDFs. I hate how everything has to be in a defined slot instead of just placing images onto the paper print area.
My main experience has been with PrintFactory and I was hoping to get PrintFactory/Proofmaster but just found out it doesn't support the 4100 yet, which is frustrating as it does support the 4000 and the 4100s. One consultant said he believed it should work fine as the 4100 and 4000 are so similar (I was also under the impression the the differences were more about things like the interface and paper feeding so assumed it would be supported).
So assuming I can't get PrintFactory, which I think does everything I'd need and is flexible and with a monthly subscription, relatively affordable, I'm again looking at the other options.
Someone else mentioned that even without a fully featured RIP I could still make proofs, just printing with the GRACoL profile and measuring the bars with a separate program. I could then measure the color patches with the i1 software or Print Verifier.
As far as making my own profiles, I would have to update my i1 to i1publish, use argyle or get a more fully-featured RIP.
So I'm looking at the full range of options, from free (the canon software) to the cheaper options like QImage to Colorburst Overdrive and Imageprint Red and Black.
Another option is Fiery XF and get a PC to use as a RIP, or run it in Parallels/VMware if that's possible (not sure on an M1) and was hoping to avoid the extra step.
There are a few other options that I've come across, some maybe not updated or not recommended for various reasons. Shiraz, Blackmagic, Mirage.
There is a question somewhere in here, maybe there's too many! It's also possible that Printfactory might support the 4100 soon in which case I'd probably be happy to go with that as I think it has all the features I want.
If not, what would you do if you were in my situation? Any thoughts?