Beta 3.5 can be downloaded here and includes a reference of new features and how they work:   ImageNest 3.5 beta

Feature in beta 3.5 include:

• Option for performing high quality interpolation prior to printing
• Black Point Compensation
• 3 Editable Levels of Print sharpening
• Speed Improvements
• Improved memory allocation
• Improved color management

As this beta has been through many rounds of testing we anticipate that we will have a final release within two weeks.  Feedback is always appreciated and you can contact us.

Eric Hatch’s article on Uprezzing in ImageNest 3.5

We will be announcing the general release of our 3.5 beta later this week and the new 3.5 beta will also include an major new feature that has yet to be announced!

http://www.color-image.com

This blog is maintained by one of the brightest minds in the color industry and will feature articles on Color Theory,  ICC Profiles, and a wide range of topics with in depth information of getting the best results from your color workflow.   The blog is written by Parker Plaisted:

About the Author
Parker Plaisted is the author of this site. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics-engineering from Washington and Lee University and a Master of Science degree in Imaging Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). While at RIT, Parker studied color science in the Munsell Color Science Laboratory under professors Mark D. Fairchild and Roy S. Berns. His classmates included Ricardo J. Motta, Mark E. Gorzynski, Mitchell R. Rosen, Taek Kim, Jason Peterson, Ranjit Bhaskar, Tom Orino, David Telep, and David Erdtmann. Parker’s primary thesis advisor was Dr. Ed Granger.

From 1994 to 1996, Parker was the Director of the Imaging Division at the RIT Research Corporation where he worked on color imaging projects with J. A. Stephen Viggiano, Milt Pearson, Nathan Moroney, David Brydges, Chris Sawran, Chris Pane, Jennifer Greenwald, Bill Hoagland, and Jeff Harman. His clients included Xerox Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, Eastman Kodak Company, Kimberly-Clark, CalComp, IBM Printing Systems, and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen.

Parker has made technical contributions to the development of color imaging systems and to software applications that create and use ICC profiles. He has more than 10 years of experience working on the development and implementation of color imaging systems.

We look forward to contributing to Parker’s blog in the near future with complete analysis of some of the one of a kind technology that is being introduced in ImageNest Version 3.5

Photoshop, ImageNest 3.0, Apple Preview, Lightroom, Etc:

Customer has a 300 PPI image open in their application that they wish to print.  They click Print and send the file to the print control panel for their Epson Printer

Printer Driver resizes the 300PPI image to 720PPI using nearest neighbor (low quality) or Bi-Liner (low quality) interpolation.  This happens in 100% of all print jobs that are printed from Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.   Why?  An inkjet printer has a native resolution that all images must be set to in order to print.  The same is true for canon and hp printer but their native PPI is 600 PPI.

Print Driver applies a microweave process that converts the PPI (pixels per inch) to DPI (Dots Per Inch with options for 720, 1440, or 2880 DPI  on an Epson printer- Canon and HP microweave to different sizes).   Printers don’t put pixels on paper,  they print dots on paper and microweaving is the process of converting pixels to dots.  There is no Image quality lost in this part of the process but a higher level of microweaving generally results in a higher quality print but a slower print time.

New ImageNest 3.5 Print Process:

Customer has a 300 PPI image open in ImageNest that they wish to print.  They click Print and ImageNest interpolates the image to 720 PPI using a very high quality Vector Based Interpolation.

Print driver recognizes that the image is at printer resolution and does not perform any interpolation.

Print Driver applies a microweave process that converts the PPI (pixels per inch) to DPI (Dots Per Inch with options for 720, 1440, or 2880 DPI in the case of Epson printer,  Canon and HP microweave to different sizes).

Here are some facts about ImageNest and OSX 10.7

ImageNest is natively programmed in 64 bit (cocoa) so it is capable of taking advantage of all the benefits of a 64 bit OS such as OSX 10.7

ImageNest does not run any of our code under Rosetta.  With Rosetta not being available in OSX 10.7 we will have no problems at all.   This is a major potential problem for any 32 bit (Carbon based) software packages.

ImageNest will continue to offer free upgrades so all improvements that we make to take advantage of new features found in 10.7 will be completely free to all users.

The Epson 4900 is a replacement for the Epson 4880 and will include many improvements in speed an Image Gamut:

Key Features:

• 11-colour UltraChrome ink set (CMKY, Light CMY, Very Light K, Photo black, Matte Black, Orange, Green)
• Print speed of 46ml per hour
• High capacity front-loading cassette
• 200ml high capacity cartridges
• Optional inline SpectroProofer
• Automatic switching between cut sheet and roll paper
• Automatic switching between photo and matte black inks, which are pre-installed
• Energy Star qualified
• Choice of paper paths – cassette, top and front manual board feed or roll
• Print on media up to 1.5mm thick

Nope,  there is a great feature that will save you from having to do any of that.

At Print time,  in the print dialog

Print Interpolation/Resampling: Currently we are testing all known interpolation/resampling algorithms including Lanczos 3, Bi-Cubic, Bi-Linear, Lanczos 5, Vector Based,  Hybrid Vector and Lanczos, and more.  The planned implementation is to have an option for automatically up-sizing all images in the layout window to 720 PPI or 600 PPI prior to printing.   Preliminary testing has shown that there is a significant quality improvement by using our own upsizing instead of the upsizing used by the Epson, Canon, or HP driver.   We will be doing an extensive beta testing program so current customers who are interested in being part of the beta process can contact here.   ImageNest Interpolation Beta

Print Sharpening: In conjunction with print interpolation we will also be adding in print sharpening tools.   Testing has show that by applying our print sharpening algorithm to image data that is at print resolution (720 ppi for Epson printers and  600 ppi for Canon and HP printers).   This method has shown to provide vastly superior results to sharpening at image resolution (varies,  often 300 ppi or smaller) since the sharpening is being applied after Image Interpolation.  We will be doing an extensive beta testing program so current customers who are interested in being part of the beta process can contact here.   ImageNest Print Sharpening

Here is a very easy way to print targets without color management.

1: Open Apple’s Preview application (you will find it in the Applications folder in Mac OS 10.6.x or 10.5.x.)

2: Open your Print Profile creation target in Preview.  Your print target will not have an embedded source ICC profile and Apple Preview will not force a source ICC profile into your image (which some applications do)

3: Select Print

4: Select your printer from the Printer pop-up menu in the print dialog

5: In the Print pull-down menu, choose Color Matching, and select EPSON Color Controls.  This will bypass any color management that colorsync would apply.

6: In the same print pull-down menu choose Printer Setting and locate the option for Off (No Color Adjustment) or Off (No Color Management), and select it. It may be in a Color Settings menu, or in another color-related menu.  The dialogs differ slightly from printer model to printer model.

7: Select Print to print your target or other image.

This is the simplest way to get a ICC color profile creation target to print properly.  This target can be used to create an ICC color profile for any application that utilizes the Epson Print driver.   This includes:  PhotoShop, ImageNest, Lightroom, Aperature, and many other print applications.

A few facts about “ImageNest Manages Colors”

Uses the rendering intent selected in ImageNest preferences to map image colors from source ICC profile (input) to destination ICC profile (output)

Performs all color management prior to printing.

Works with printing and creating PDF files