All current shipping models of Epson Printers have a great feature for saving paper that works perfectly with ImageNest.   What makes this feature so great is that it will automatically trim any white area off an Image Layout.   For example.   If you create a layout in ImageNest that is 24 inches wide and 100 inches long you should have enough space for most any print job.  but what happens when you have a smaller print job that may only be 23 inches long,  Do you go make a new custom page that is just 23 inches long?

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

At Print time,  in the print dialog

Version 3.2 promises to be one of our best yet and as we always have–we will be releasing version 3.2 as a free update.  Here are the major features that will be part of the update:

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

Turning off color management (which is necessary for printing targets) is something on our list of features and we hope to have it in the new year.  Since color management methodology has changed in Mac OSX 10.6 many people are having problems printing out ICC profile creation targets on 10.6.

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.

ImageNest is very happy to announce that in version 3.0.1 (currently on the website) customers can now accurately soft-proof images in the ImageNest layout.   After many months we have finished redesigning the ImageNest Color Management to add the ability to color manage inside the ImageNest application.   With this new update customers will not be locked in to only using “Printer Manages Colors” and can now use “ImageNest Manages Colors” to perform all color management prior to printing.

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

BlueCubit LLC is very happy to announce that version 3.0 is now available.   Version 3.o contains not only many new features but is a complete re-write of core functions including support for using both GPU and CPU for faster Image Processing.  Some of the major features of version 3.0 include:

Rotation in Layout: Users can now rotate with any nesting method.  Previously,  all rotation was done automatically.  ImageNest can still rotate images automatically for best fit but now has an option for manual rotation as well.

Grid:   ImageNest 3.0 has a customizable grid that images can “Snap to”.  This allows for quick and accurate image spacing for optimal paper usage.

Snap to Image Edges:  3.0 now has the ability to align images with the edges of other images with easy to use guidlines.

- Copy and paste: Copy and Paste images in the layout with Control C and Control V hotkeys.

- Ability to drag images between pages: Users can now drag images from one page to another with ease both quickly and easily.

- Image Overlap: Images can be set to overlap for collages or an image can be trimmed simply by moving it beneath another image.

- Image Editor: Our built in image editor now contains additional information about resolution and pixel dimensions.

- Manually add/delete pages: In addition to our automatic page creation users can now add or delete pages manually.

ImageNest 3.0 can be downloaded here:  Download ImageNest RIP 3.0

ImageNest 3.0 Demo can be downloaded here:  Download ImageNest RIP 3.o Demo

Version 3.0 contains a new feature for flipping and image either horizontally, Vertically, or both !

The first row contains the original image and an image that has been flipped horizontally

The second row contains the original image and an image that has been flipped vertically