[Openicc] Epson HTM CUPS drivers

[Robert Krawitz]

On Mon, 7 Feb 2011 18:30:22 -0700, Chris Murphy wrote:
> Has anyone looked into wrapping Epson's existing HTM (half-tone
> module) for their pro printers for Linux/CUPS? Maybe this is a
> licensing issue for Linux that just can't be bridged. But without
> asking, maybe no one knows the answer to this.

That's surely closed source, with all the attendant problems (binary
dependencies, 32 vs. 64 bit, non-x86 architectures, you name it).

> I ask because on Mac OS X, they are just a scaled down HTM (RGB
> only), put into a wrapper for CUPS and supporting Mac OS X's print
> dialog extension scheme. Most of the proofing RIPs on the market
> even use these HTMs (RGB + CMYK paths). Caveats are, you don't get
> control over droplet sizes, ink limits, GCR, any of that stuff. It's
> just like the native Epson/OS driver on Mac OS and Windows. You're
> control is limited to media type settings, all of which are based on
> Epson media.

Gutenprint's arguably much the same: it started out as a specialized
RIP (for GIMP), and Ghostscript and CUPS wrappers were added later
on.  There are other RIPs using the Gutenprint core (PhotoPrint,
QuadToneRIP that I know of).

> I have no idea if Epson charges a licensing free for these full HTMs
> for RIP vendors. I don't think they do. But they are only available
> on the non-consumer printers. I think there's one for the R2880, but
> that's unique. Usually it's just the 17" and wider printers that get
> the HTM.

I don't have a Windows box or Mac (I run only Linux), so I don't know
what the Epson output looks like.  Edmund tells me that Gutenprint's
doing pretty well, though :-)

-- 
Robert Krawitz                                     <rlk at alum.mit.edu>

Tall Clubs International  --  http://www.tall.org/ or 1-888-IM-TALL-2
Member of the League for Programming Freedom  --  http://ProgFree.org
Project lead for Gutenprint   --    http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net

"Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works."
--Eric Crampton