For those who've been riding the digital train for some time, the evolution of affordable desktop photo quality printing has been quite remarkable. I vividly remember the shock of seeing the first print roll off an Epson Photo Stylus printer. It almost looked like a "real" photograph. Today, with the proper printer and technique it is quite simple not just to match, but to exceed the quality of traditional wet darkroom printing.

"How do I get a good print?" That's one of the most common questions I hear as a Nikon School instructor. Some people don't seem to realize there are printers and papers specifically optimized for printing photographs. I've been fond of the Epson line of printers for years now. My "digital darkroom" currently contains Epson Stylus Photo Printers R800, 2200, 2400 and 4000.

An absolutely critical part of successful digital printing is utilizing some sort of device to calibrate and profile your monitor. Doing so will allow your monitor to show your images correctly, increasing the likelihood that your prints will match your monitor. I've found the Gretag MacBeth Eye-One Photo to be an accurate and reliable device. Those looking for a less expensive option might consider the Eye-One Display or Monaco Optix XR.

A good printer and paper combination and a calibrated monitor along with following a color-managed workflow that includes printer/paper profiles and proper use of image editing software should get you that elusive good print.

Now for some folks, "good", is just not good enough. There's one more piece of the puzzle that can help nudge you into "great" territory. There's a wonderful piece of software out there called ImagePrint, made by Florida-based Colorbyte Software.

ImagePrint is not cheap. Prices start at $495 for the lite version for the Epson 2100/2200/2400 and HP 30 and 90 and continue higher for larger format printer.

2) ImagePrint is a RIP, a Raster Image Processor. It is a piece of software that replaces your printer driver. The quality of the images coming out of your printer is not just a function of the printer hardware and paper you use. The software that drives the printer is a significant part of that equation. So theoretically, you could improve the output of a printer by improving the software that controls it.

That's where ImagePrint comes in. ImagePrint can be difficult to describe, so let me give you three reasons to justify the purchase. Actually, the first two reasons justify the purchase. The third is just a nice bonus.

1) ImagePrint improves the quality of your prints. Simply put, ImagePrint is a more sophisticated piece of software than the software driver that came with your printer. The improvement in quality is significant enough that this alone could justify the purchase for someone looking to produce very high quality ink jet photo prints. To my eye, prints made with ImagePrint appear to have better color, and a significantly better tonal range, with much better detail in the shadows. Black and white printing is dramatically improved with metamarism (loosely translated-- the characteristic of B&W inkjet prints to appear to have an objectionable color cast when viewed under different light sources) virtually eliminated. You also have tremendous flexibility to replicate the toning effects of a traditional darkroom such as sepia and selenium toning. There's even an option to do split- toning where the shadows and highlights areas can be toned differently.

ColorByte maintains an extensive library of printer profiles for a wide variety of papers. To achieve optimal accuracy you should have a profile for each paper that you use. Papers from Epson, Hahnemuhle, Moab, LexJet, Crane, Legion, Arches and many others are included in the ImagePrint library. ImagePrint licensees can download these profiles at no extra cost. You'll find profiles for printing black and white, profiles for printing color, profiles for printing with matte black ink, profiles for printing with photo black ink. For even greater accuracy, these profiles are further subdivided so that you can choose a profile designed for print viewing under tungsten, daylight or fluorescent lighting. With custom printer profiles from a profile service costing anywhere from $50-$85, the availability of these profiles for free can easily justify the cost of the software license. I've found these profiles to be extremely accurate, giving me a great deal of flexibility to experiment with third-party papers without having to invest time and money in expensive custom profiles.

3)ImagePrint also offers some nifty workflow options including the ability to create photo layouts, photo packages and do drag and drop printing. But for me, these workflow options are just icing on the cake. The improvement in quality is what's got my attention.

More information on ImagePrint can be found at http://www.colorbytesoftware.com/.