I've put a new version of the print plugin on my web site (http://www.tiac.net/users/rlk/print-3.0.1.tar.gz). This one has greatly improved print quality, at least for the Stylus Photo/700/EX printers. All four of my test photos print very well with only minor changes in settings. The most recent one was a wedding photo (for skin tones). I've changed the dithering algorithm slightly. It will very slightly reduce sharpness in exchange for fewer artifacts. For Epson folks, I suggest starting with the following settings: Brightness 120 Gamma 1.2 Saturation 1.3 Density 1.1 Depending upon your ink, you may find it comes out a touch blue or green. If this happens, try nudging the green and blue settings down a bit (or boost red slightly). The other main issue, at least for the Stylus Photo printers, is that the dots (most notably the cyan) seem to be slightly bigger than the dots I've seen in a printout from Windows on a 700 (which is equivalent to the EX). For that matter, they look like they're bigger than the dots produced at 300 dpi on Linux with the smallest dot size setting. I'm not certain why that is. I believe I have all the commands correct. This also needs heavy testing on other printers, of course. The settings in the dithering engine are tuned for the EX, and are probably wrong on other printers. That needs to be looked at. BTW, my wife was *very* impressed with how the wedding print came out, and she allowed as to how it might actually justify the time I've put into this project. But it looks like the end is finally in sight for this. I guess I should just be glad I have an EX rather than a 750 or 1200, which is a considerably more complicated print engine to work with. -- Robert Krawitz <rlk@xxxxxxxxxxxx> http://www.tiac.net/users/rlk/ Tall Clubs International -- http://www.tall.org/ or 1-888-IM-TALL-2 Member of the League for Programming Freedom -- mail lpf@xxxxxxxxxxxx "Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works." --Eric Crampton
