• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Polaroid Digital Pallette installer/Exporter for Mac?

NeXT

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
8,095
Location
Kamloops, BC, Canada
I'm again poking at my Polaroid HR 6000 film printer in an attempt to see if there was some use I could make of it. I have the Macintosh Palette Export plugin for photoshop but it still needs the rest of Polaroid's software that contained the film definitions and the RIP driver. Originally it seems this came bundled with the unit but I received no disks. Some googling indicates that for mac there was RasterPlus, which is still available for a LOT of money and uses a protection dongle, and Palette Export from Polaroid themselves which I assume is the basic utility included on said missing install media.
There was also software for Irix, Dos/Windows, NeXTSTEP and the Amiga. I can find a copy of the Dos/Windows install media but nothing for the Macintosh.
 
I'm again poking at my Polaroid HR 6000 film printer in an attempt to see if there was some use I could make of it. I have the Macintosh Palette Export plugin for photoshop but it still needs the rest of Polaroid's software that contained the film definitions and the RIP driver. Originally it seems this came bundled with the unit but I received no disks. Some googling indicates that for mac there was RasterPlus, which is still available for a LOT of money and uses a protection dongle, and Palette Export from Polaroid themselves which I assume is the basic utility included on said missing install media.
There was also software for Irix, Dos/Windows, NeXTSTEP and the Amiga. I can find a copy of the Dos/Windows install media but nothing for the Macintosh.
I've just found this. I've recently got hold of one of the ProPalette 8000 units which I would like to get running with one of my old Macs, but I cannot find the driver software for MacOS anywhere. Did you manage to find a copy of the Macintosh drivers in the end?
 
No harm asking. :)
Unfortunately no I was unable to find the software. The few people I found who said they had it refused to share it.
 
[QUOTE="NeXT]
The few people I found who said they had it refused to share it.
[/QUOTE]

Wow... really? That's a bit sad, but similar to what I've been finding. I have found one person who claims to have a backup of what was on the ftp.polaroid.com server, but they're not being very responsive in replying to my messages. If I manage to get some software together would you still be interested in a copy?
 
I would absolutely!
It comes down to distributing commercial software. It's a grey area universally and some people are hard to persuade there's a difference between distributing cracked software, passing around a program and an activation key and a copy of the installation CD/floppy that came with a product and only works with said product and nothing else, which is essentially the same as possessing a hardware dongle.
 
We're looking for a copy of the drivers that Polaroid made available for free download from their ftp server before they folded as a company. There were other Printing RIP programs associated with these film recorders, such as RasterPlus, but I think the Macintosh version of this required an ADB dongle anyway, so it'd pretty much be of no use unless you could find a full setup.
 
If you're just looking to just test your film recorder, you can actually download Macintosh drivers for the various Polaroid film recorders, including your HR6000, from https://www.poladigital.co.jp/soft/download.html ... the only catch is they're only in Japanese. I have checked with the company but unfortunately they don't have a copy of the English versions.
 
That would work but the link to the film table (which I'm suspicious would work on the english Photoshop plugin) is broken.
 
The drivers for Polaroid Palette for Mac can now be found at the following link:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ebctuokc4s31q6b/Polaroid_Palette_for_Mac.zip/file

This is legacy OEM Polaroid software for their no longer available film recorders, and should work with the Palette CI-5000 and HR-6000, and ProPalette 7000 and 8000/8035/8045/8067 film recorders. The software runs on PowerMacintosh on Mac OS 8.5 - 9.2.1, and requires a computer with a CD drive and a SCSI interface.

If you get it running, please share your setup and results.
 
Last edited:
Just in case the Mediafire link goes down, the CDR image is now also available for download from the Internet Archive:


The disc image will allow you to install Rasterplus 2.02 and Palette Export 2.0, and there are updates to Rasterplus 2.06 and Palette Export 2.01 available elsewhere online.
 
For any people who have a ProPalette 7000 or 8000, you might want to grab a copy of CFR Film Table Commander:

https://www.srs1software.com/CfrFilmTableCommander.aspx

It’s a film table editor for the 7000 & 8000 that only runs on Windows (alas), but which has now been made available as freeware by its creators. There’s no knowing how long it will stay available so you should grab it while you can. The online FAQ says that it will only edit the PC film tables but it seems to also recognise the Macintosh film tables if you add a .FLM code to the end of the film table file name in Windows Explorer.
 
Just to add to the post above, it appears that CFR Film Table Commander running on Windows can actually be used to edit / generate film tables for a ProPalette 7000 / 8000 running on Mac OS 9. As above, to recognise Mac film tables in CFR Film Table Commander on Windows you just need to add a .FLM file code to the end of the film table file name. To use film tables generated / saved from CFR Film Table Commander on Windows, with Rasterplus on the Macintosh, you just need to change the Type & Creator codes of the film table with ResEdit as follows:

Code:
Type 'TEXT' -> 'CFFT'
Creator 'dosa' -> 'NPoL'
 
So far I've only really focussed on B&W output, but here's an initial test image.

The original of the image is on the left, including a blown up detail, while the output file and detail are on the right. The original image file was shot in greyscale at 5976 x 3992 pixels, and it has been output at this resolution using the ProPalette 8000 onto 35mm Ilford XP2+, which has then been lab processed and scanned with a Nikon Coolscan 5000 at 5782 × 3946, and Levels adjustment applied in Photoshop to match the appearance of the scan to the original JPEG.

There's still a way to go, as well as some colour testing, but it's clear that the grain of the film is one limiting factor, so next experiments will be with finer grained film - I have a couple of rolls of RPX25 to play with, and perhaps some experiements to determine the role played by the contrast of the original file going in. Unfortunately I don't have facilities to process 4x5, as I'd be interested to whether it might be possible to image the scan lines on the larger film.

All in all not bad for technology that's knocking on for 30 years old.

test_01_composite.JPG
 
In a weird twist of fate, I have ended up with another Digital Pallette.
This one is rebranded by GCC Technologies and calls itself the ColorFast II and it came with a pair of books. One is for RasterPlus95 (but the CD is missing out of the front pocket :( ) and the other is version 1.1 and 1.3 of ImagePrint for MS-DOS. There is also a copy of 35mm Express and Presentation Express from Business & Professional Software Inc.
They're all 5.25" media and the Polaroid software seemed to image fine with rawread but the other two disks put up a fight and wanted to be done in IMD. I've taken the images, scanned the floppies and put it in my Dropbox for now but if anyone wants to test and verify if the disk images are good before I put them up on the Internet Archive PM me and I'll send a link.
 
What model of Palette is it based upon - have you any pictures of it?

I believe a company called Symbolic Sciences actually did an LVT (laser) version of the ProPalette 8035/45/67 called the Fire 1000, which would be fun to play with. I'm also aware that one of the very earliest Polaroid film recorders was actually made by another company called Mirus, so it feels like there was quite a bit of crossover between companies in this field.
 
Sure, plus I found an ad for it.

IMG_5333.JPG

colorfast.jpg
 
Version 1.1 and 1.3 of the drivers and ImagePrint are now available on the Archive. Please note they have been put up in raw and IMD formats due to conflicting compatibility reports and the non-Polaroid software diskettes have been omitted.


 
Back
Top