Does Studio Print V15 work well with VMware Fusion?

InkjetMall Customer Support Piezography Inks & Printing
1

Hello,

I have been running Studio Print V12 with Windows XP on an old PC. The set up is slow and plagued with error messages.

Does anyone know if Studio Print V15 runs well with Windows 10 using VMware Fusion on a Mac Pro?

There now seems to be Drivers for the Eye One (early version, not the pro version) for Windows 10. Is anyone using the Eye One successfully with Studio Print V15 on Windows 10?

Thanks,

Drew Harty

2

Yep. It works great.

best,
Walker

3

Hi Walker,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Are you using an Eye One or current Eye One Pro with SP V15 and Windows 10?

For awhile no drivers were available for my Eye One for Windows 9 or 10, but now drivers seem to be available.

I don’t want to buy SP 15 and find out my older Eye One won’t work with it.

Thanks, Drew

4

You’ll need to contact Ergosoft for the definitive answer however the i1v2 and v1 both use the same protocol I believe. There is no reason why Ergorip won’t work on v1 although I have not confirmed it and use v2 only at this point.
-Walker

5

Thanks Walker for the follow up. I have contacted Ergosoft to see what they say. The new eye-one Pro 2 is an expensive choice for just reading 60 B&W linearization patches.

Drew

6

PPEv2 allows for a match to the contrast curve of a previously printed studioprint target. You don’t need v15 if all you require is the calibration. If you have a working studioprint setup you can print the 256 gray target through your calibrated studioprint environment and then use this as the target data to calibrate QuadtoneRIP against. This way your images printed with QTR = the contrast of StudioPrint exactly. It’s why I built that feature.

best,
Walker

7

Hello Walker,

It was not clear to me from the video link you sent how I would be using Studio Print print linearized print environment data with Piezo Pro.

Are you talking about taking measurements from a final linearization in SP and importing them into Piezo Pro to create a curve that can be used by the Quadtone RIP, or would I be printing a 250 step profile file from Piezo pro using a SP linearized print environment, then measuring the printout in Piezo Pro?

Thanks,

Drew

8

Hello Walter,

I am considering a couple options in upgrading my B&W printing system. As I’ve mentioned, I am Mac based but also use a couple programs with VMware Fusion and Windows 10 on a Mac Pro. I run SP12 off an old Dell and/or Microsoft tablet, both of which have been plagued with error messages and buggy to use. (I had no luck running SP 12 with XP through Fusion.) I am beginning to think the cost of upgrading to SP V15 might be worth it to have a stable print process or that I should switch over to using Piezo Pro 2.

Can you please characterize the differences you see between print qualities produced by Piezo Pro 2 and Studio Print. Descriptions I’ve read say SP puts down less ink producing a sharper print. Does Piezo Pro 2 produce better value transitions because it is using more ink?

I understand Piezo Pro 2 offers more control over blending of inks, but currently I work with full sets of K7 neutral and just use SP to linearize. I like the simplicity of using SP but assume once I become familiar with Piezo Pro 2, linearizing a print environment will be as quick and straight forward as using SP. I typically do a new linearization in SP every time I buy a new batch of role paper.

Thanks,

Drew Harty

9

Yes. In general the curve structure in Piezography-through-QTR is about 10 years more recent than SP.

vis a vis tonal difference, QTR is a linear system by default and SP uses Dot Gain (a curve, that is not linear but is closer to screen match without soft-proofing). Do maintain your existing imaged archive you’d need to match the SP tonal ramp.

PPEv2 is actually just as simple as SP in all reality. And it allows for 256 -> 700step targets and is iterative just like SP.

QTR (on the Mac) allows for print ICC Profiles as well. This would be a pretty good match to your existing SP dot-gain setup if you didn’t want to do the match-to-SP process.

best,
Walker

10

Hello Walker,

Thanks for the information. Do the Piezo Pro 2 curves typically put more ink on the paper than a Studio Print Linearization? Reading Piezo Pro Instructions, Jon described Piezo Pro prints as coming off the printer “with some slight mottle from not being dry.” That’s not something I’ve seen with Studio Print. Would that effect sharpness?

Drew

11

No. The Pro inks do not put down more ink than SP. I have no idea where you read this but it’s not accurate. All ink prints are a bit wet when they come out. I ran SP for 10 yrs (and still mod the SP forum btw) and I see much more Piezo ink on those prints than QTR. In fact when I built my SP environments I would max the ink so much that I had to dry the prints curled to flatten them out due to the platen gap marks.

best,
Walker

12

No. The Pro inks do not put down more ink than SP. I have no idea where you read this but it’s not accurate.

The only source I have found for how the Piezo Pro 2 process might compare with Studio Print or other RIPS is various forums.

There is, of course, a lot of knowledge about Piezo Pro 2 on Inkjet Mall but not much discussion about changes in print qualities I might expect compared to other RIPs.

Other than an early version of QTR, Studio Print is the only RIP I have used with Piezo inks, so I just trying to get a sense of what I might expect from PP 2 before investing the money and time to learn it.

Thanks for all your info about PP2.

Drew

1 Like
13

Hello Walter,

In reviewing old Piezo post, you mention in a September 2018 post that you had written a long essay on linear vs icc.

I could not find the essay on the Piezo blog. Do you have a link to the essay?

Thanks,

Drew Harty

14

I’ve written this on various posts on this forum but the long-form ended up in an email here: Piezography Newsletter 03-27-2019 Ă‚ Ă°ÂźÂŚÂŽ

(scroll down for it)

best,
Walker

15

Hello Walker,

Thanks for the link.

I purchased a used iPro 2 to replace a first generation eye-one and didn’t realize until I ran the X-Rite diagnostics on the Pro 2 today that the supplier is EFI. (The seller didn’t indicate this fact in his listing !).

The EFI i1 Pro 2 is not listed in the Piezo Pro 2 list of supported devices. Can I assume it is still supported because the EFI is an X-Rite devices? (In fact the EFI brand name is nowhere on the spectrometer.) I have 10 days to return the EFI Pro 2 to the seller if it will be a problem and can buy a used I1 Pro 1, though the Pro 2’s warranty began in mid 2017 and the thing has only 36 minutes of lamp time.

Thanks again for all your responses. After 10+ years of working with SP, I am going give Piezo Pro 2 a try.

Drew

1 Like
16

The Spectro you bought is exactly the same just a different label.

Best,

Walker