Marty,
Read my review of the Z3200 PS first. The last part shows the B&W issue. There are also links to other reviews there, check Keith Cooper's review too, bottom page. Mention here what OS and application you work from and forget about HP's Preview in my opinion. There are better ways to get there.
http://www.pigment-print.com/review/Z3200FirstPage.htm
met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla
Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/
Ernst:
First, thank you for the reply and links. I will read them carefully.
I am using Windows 7 Ultimate, CS 5 Ultimate with Topaz Plug-ins, the Z3200ps is networked to my computer.
A few questions are raised with your response and the links which I just read quickly...
First, you say to ignore the HP Printer Utility, that there are better ways to 'get there'. Could you be more specific... please. Do you have a specific suggestion or workflow you could recommend? Right now here is my workflow for printing:
I finish my image in PS CS5, save as a .tif, and invoke the print command through PS. This opens a console with setting choices, and I confess I am not sure what settings to use all the time. For some reason my color images print almost flawlessly, although I do see some softening of colors in the print.
Since I selected to preview before printing, the file RIPs, then opens in an Explorer browser (as I mentioned, I had to delete Firefox completely from my computer, not sure why, but there is apparently some conflict). When the preview finally opens I hit 'continue' in the utility window and the image prints.
As I am mostly (35 years) a darkroom printer, I am a little unsure on my legs about proper settings for digital printing. Any guidance, or pointing me to proper settings would be greatly appreciated. I do print on Satin and Matte papers, and I believe I have properly calibrated the printer with these papers, and calibrated my monitor properly, and then synched the presets and profiles.
I select rendering intent as Perceptual, with Black Point Compensation selected. I also select Match Print Colors in the print dialogue box.
As I said, my color images print fine, but the b/w images fill in significantly so I am working around this by screwing up my images on screen until I get a usable print, but this is a total waste of paper, time and ink of course, and I am sure it's the wrong way to do this, but I don't know what else to do.
If it matters, my print files are large - often 400 - 600 Mb, and since I can't figure out how to properly set up for landscape printing to save paper length on the rolls, I am a bit frustrated. Any help on how to do this properly? As I mentioned in my OP, I don't see any paper size settings other than (for using a 24 wide roll) a 24 x 30 choice. On an older Epson 7600 I was able to set the paper length I wanted very easily, don't see how to do this with the HP. Is there a way?
In Richard from imagecraft's post, he says:
I think the matte prints are better in this regard. I have finally made a
adjustment curve to compensate (and not use the ICC profile at all) and the
results look really great. However, I am now wondering whether I am the only
one with the problem! :-)
Do you know what he's referring to in terms of a curve adjustment, and how I would set the system to NOT use the ICC profile?? I'll try writing to him as well, but thanks in advance for your reply and help. I have a huge exhibition coming up and really need to get this down right asap.
What else can I provide in terms of information that might help you help me better?
All best and danke...
Martin