Powerdriver help!!

[paul whitelock]

hi hope someone can help I sure its something dead simple.last night my laptop I have had since day one went bang so I have had a big panic to get the drivers on to the new computer. I have downloaded the drivers for my gxe3300n and powerdriver from sawgrass I use photoshop elements to print I have selected powerdriver in the print box but nothing happens other than the job appearing in the print box . if I select gxe3300n in the print box it prints first time but not via powerdriver
hope that makes sense and someone can help
thanks
paul

[JMugs]

I had the same scenario with my 3110, called Sawgrass and they sorted it, it was the driver from Ricoh that was at fault, slightly wrong listing.

Janners

[pisquee]

you could download the ICCs from Sawgrass and use them in Photoshop, and just print with the Ricoh driver and PS in charge of colour management

[arthur.daley]

I agree with Pisquee on this. I was using Powerdriver and on the whole was pretty happy with it - very easy to use and it worked with all of the applications I wanted to print from - Libre Office, Adobe Acrobat, PS Elements etc. However, when I spent a few hours at Listawoods and saw the difference between mugs that had been printed via Powerdriver asnd those printed via an ICC profile it was a no brainer to dump Powerdriver.

ICC will give you much better colour consistency, brighter punchier colours and sharper. The instructions on Sawgrass website for installing ICC profiles are a bit daunting at first glance but to be honest with a set of printed instructions in front of me it was easy.

Hope this helps



Arthur

[pisquee]

As far as I thought, PowerDriver just selects the appropriate ICC profile, but if using something like Photoshop and an ICC, then you have the advantage of being able to soft proof in real time as you edit/create.

[arthur.daley]

Hi Pisquee

I don't know how Powerdriver actually works. Somethings it does actually make a fair job of and often its probably good enough but having compared the exact same file printed on the same Ricoh printer, onto consecutive sheets of Trupix paper, pressed onto identical mug stock in the same press within minutes of each other - there was a very distinct difference in image quality. If I hadn't seen the direct comparison I would probably still be using Powerdriver - if only because it was easy to use and automatically flipped the image before printing. However, it was very definitely worth the hassle of removing Powerdriver and installing a nd setting up the ICC profile and as a bonus I discovered that there is an option in the ICC profile print driver to automatically flip the image - so for me it scores 10/10.

I suspect that a lot of people use Powerdriver because they think ICC profiles are a bit geeky and complicated. Have to say that the Sawgrass guides to installing are very good and if you have problems there is a very nice man at Sawgrass technical who appears to have the patience of a saint who will talk you through your install and config problems - full marks to Sawgrass for customer support.


Arthur