Another five cents,

>One note with regard to the Kodak vrs the Fuji printer.  The kodak printer
>is a CMYK printer (cyan/magenta/yellow/black).  The Fuji is an RGB printer
>(red/green/blue).

Some programs, such as Freehand, automatically convert RGB format to CMYK
format when it prints RGB-TIFF image files. When using Fuji printer, make
sure that you turn off this option. Otherwise you lose the advantage of the
RGB printing, and get slower printing thruput because of the unnecessary
data conversion.
(For freehand select File->Printing Option and uncheck "convert RGB TIFF to
CMYK".)

In Photoshop, you can set the type of printing ink so that the image on the
CRT resembles to the printout. (File -> Preferences -> Printing Inks Setup)
Fuji provides custom ink setup files to be selected from this dialogue.
Curiously enough, the floppy disk that contains these files is not included
in their product package. Ask the service dealer to send the floppy disk.
(It was free in our case.)

>file in Photoshop and convert the image to CMYK.  You will notice that the
>colors seem washed out.  It is possible to restore some of the vibrancy to
>the colors by adjusting the color sliders, but the result is never as good
>as a straight RGB image.  On-the-ohter-hand, most publishers use CMYK
>printers, so finals for publication will more closely resemble the original
>if they are printed in a CMYK format.

Even the Fuji printer cannot print pictures as brilliantly as you see on
the CRT monitor. This is because photographic paper cannot reproduce as
much colour as the CRT does. The range of colour a particular instrument
can reproduce is called "gamut". A CRT has much wider gamut than the Fuji
printer, which has still wider gamut than dye-sub printers and the printers
publishers use. In Photoshop, you can select "Mode -> Gamut Warning" to
show you the area of images with the out-of-gamut colour. To desaturate
colours, you can play with the Image -> Adjust -> Hue/Saturation dialogue
and decrease the colour saturation so that the gamut warning disappear.

This is actually very important, regardless or the printer you use. The
problem is, the oft-used green-blue and red-green pictures of
double-stained specimen contain lots of out-of-gamut colour. I saw lots of
posters and publications in which the pictures are too much saturated...

Season's greetings!

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