So what is ImagePrint?
What it isn't is a substitute for Photoshop
or any other image/graphic editing application; Photoshop,
Illustrator, Corel Draw, et al are all safe. ImagePrint is
a high performance print engine or RIP (Raster Image Processor) that
has been designed to optimally convert image data into a format that
can be easily interpreted by the printer. RIPS's are intended to
process large quantities of image data very quickly and in this
context a 100MB plus
multi-layer image will typically begin to print after only a few 10's
of seconds. In effect it replaces the conventional print driver with
which we are all familiar. Furthermore, and
unlike the majority of
currently available RIP's ImagePrint was written to address the
needs of the professional photographer rather than simply adhering to
convention and dealing with the purely illustrative graphics market.
The application was developed for, and is compatible with, a large range of
wide bodied (Epson 7600, 9600, 10600, Fuji Roland, HP, IRIS, etc)
printers. A LITE version or ImagePrint is available exclusively for the
desktop printers listed below:
The LITE version of ImagePrint does not include the colour
correction, package printing, auto-print or page tiling features
described in the ColorByte product literature. Nevertheless,
for those requiring them the full feature set is available at
additional cost. A demo version is available from ColorByte Software
although at time of writing this review it was only available upon
request. In order for ImagePrint to
be fully functional
it
will need a spare USB port on your computer to accommodate the software protection dongle. Without
this dongle ImagePrint will operate in demonstration mode; i.e. watermarking all images with the word
"Demo".
Depending on the printer make and model
ImagePrint supports various print speed (quality) and media sizes
including all the standard options from the Epson driver. For example,
with the
Epson 2100/2200 this includes 720dpi, 1440dpi normal and high speed
printing plus 2880dpi printing. Multi-pass printing is also available
for printers such as the Epson 7600/9600.
The main ImagePrint application is also the
control centre for laying out images and sending them to an output
device such as an inkjet printer. ImagePrint provides a large
assortment of high-end layout and colour correction tools although
as noted above some of these have been omitted from the LITE version.
ImagePrint is designed to be extremely easy to use with
visual feedback provided for virtually every feature. This means that
you can achieve true WYSIWYP (What You See Is What You Print) output
without sacrificing the power of a high-end printing application.
ImagePrint is a fully cross-platform inkjet printing solution that
should be equally competent in any Windows, Macintosh or mixed network
environment. However, for optimum printer performance on mixed
networks ColorByte recommend a multi-tasking operating system
such as Windows 2000, XP or OS X.
The
screen shot shown below shows the main tool palette and control panel (all
of which can be hidden if required). Unlike applications such as
Photoshop the image displayed in the Layout Area is a
Softproof which means it is previewed using the active media
profile rather than the more conventional working space profile. This
can be a bit disconcerting at first especially if a matte paper has
been selected, but you soon get used to it.
ImagePrint Interface and Tools
ImagePrint is suitable for printing both Bitmap and Vector
based images; a Postscript option is also available. You'll only need
the PostScript version if you print PDF or EPS files, or would like to
print directly from within any Windows application such as
Adobe Illustrator, InDesign or Photoshop.
As befits any application claiming to be a RIP ImagePrint facilitates automatic page layout.
It allows the user to simply drop images onto
ImagePrint and these are then automatically positioned on the
page. If you want to move an image just drag it into position using
the fully WYSIWYG enabled page composition controls. User defined page
sizes can be saved and called back for use at any time using a
dedicated dialog. To configure a new page size it's simply a matter of
specifying the actual page dimensions and ImagePrint will take
care of the rest. The following screen shot shows
an example for A3 paper.
ImagePrint also supports roll paper and so those wishing to
print panorama images can do so without resorting to stitching prints
together. I haven't established the actual maximum print length but am
advised that it exceeds any roll media supplied by Epson.
 20 April 2003
With the introduction of ImagePrint 5.5 ColorByte have
delivered some new and very welcome enhancements. After
overcoming a few hurdles (the beta version I was testing wouldn't recognise my Epson
2100) I finally got down to putting version 5.5 through its paces.
Image Centring and True Borderless Printing are now
possible. The image centring feature places the image centrally
relative to the actual page size rather than the more normal printable
area, which is a welcome improvement on Epson's definition of centre.
The absence of Borderless Printing wasn't something that I spilled
many
tears over but it's now available and appears to function as
advertised. The following screen shot shows the dialog where the user
activates these features. Media Type and Feed Adjustment
are only available on the Epson 7600/9600/10600 printers.
Centre Margin and Borderless Printing
The package print feature gives the professional photographer
a fair degree of flexibility. A different template can be
applied to every image on the page and Templates can be designed to
any size with as many frames as your page size can accommodate. Set-up
the frame orientation in either landscape or portrait to maximize page
use and let the Auto-Rotate feature take care of the rest. Images will
be rotated automatically to fit the frame size.
ImagePrint support for Templates
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