Thanks a lot, Fred.

What about making this process more visual? Playing around converting images into black&white with Nik Silver Efex there is a tool to visualize the Zone System Map. Hovering over the zone index you can see the relative grey values on the image. Such a tool would be a great help to check the tone values for the final print when adjusting the curves or the loc values.

The image is from the article about Silver Efex at http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/plugins/silver_efex.html

If you do landscapes you can add a polarizer filter.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/polarizers.shtml

@Derek, can you keep us informed about the RIP software? Before getting Qimage I was looking for this kind of software, but spending a lot of money only for an enhanced printer driver didn't convince me. On the printer forum of Luminous Landscape I learned a lot about the Z3100, Fred Dinkla and Neil Snape explained a lot about the Z series.
http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showforum=6

Another source is the Unofficial HP z3100 User Info at http://z3100users.wikispaces.com/

Working with the HP Z3100 Qimage detracts the default margins of the printer. Working in metric units sometimes it helps to setup a measure of 19,99 cm instead of 20 cm. Just play around... do I have to send a bottle of red wine from Piedmont to shorten the trial&error time?   

This was just a comparison to explain how MatWorks! creates a larger lower border.

But indeed, the software is a time saver with the traditional mat cutters. My next machine will be an Esterly Standard mat cutting system from www.speed-mat.com.

Have your tried to switch the color space in the 500D from sRGB to Adobe RGB to see if there is a difference with the raw conversion in Qimage?

Another solution from the program MatWorks! from Giorgio Trucco, that I use to calculate my mat cuttings:
Here you can define a larger bottom border for the matting style with the options "Bottom Weighted" and "Double Bottom Weighted". I think the larger bottom border is calculated with a percent value. Would that be an option for the border setup in Qimage?

Link to MatWorks! for all do-it-yourself mat cutters:
http://www.giorgiotrucco.com/matworks.html

Printing several images with a textline on the lower border on one big sheet of paper I run into a small problem: it's not possible to activate the printing of edges as cutting marks.
On this example I print two 20x30cm sheets on a 61cm/24" paper roll. I use a template with freehand print placement and floating text on the lower border. Freehand print placement because I want a larger lower border for the text. Obviously I can't activate the printing of edges, since they are printed around the image.

A solution would be to define a larger lower border (instead of the existing symmetrical border) and setting the floating text inside the border, to activate the cutting edges.
Right now I measure the borders after printing to apply a mark for the paper cutting. Not a big problem, but using printing edges from Qimage would be more comfortable.

Another option would be to snap the floating text box to the outer edge of border #1 or to the inner edge of border #2.
Working this way the border #2 provides the distance from the floating text to the edge of the print.

Or maybe displaying the distance in mm from the floating text box to the edge of the image print size in the same manner like the manual placement of the selected image. Moving the image inside the print page the distance to the four page borders are visible.

Ahh, these Qimage users, they are never satisfied!    

Here is a user forum for HP Photosmart Pro B9180 and B8850: http://www.photo-iprint.com/BB/viewforum.php?f=3

I'm using several external SATA harddrives, connected via the Sata Quickport Pro from Sharkoon:
http://www.sharkoon.com/html/produkte/externe_gehaeuse/sata_quickport_pro/index_en.html

It uses eSATA attached directly to a SATA port on the motherboard. Mounting and unmounting is done via the free program HotSwap! :
http://mysite.verizon.net/kaakoon/hotswap/index_enu.htm

Thanks Mike! 

Here is a paper from the german company Image Engineering about ozone and fading:
http://www.image-engineering.de/images/pdf/testreports/bildstabilitaet_artikel_en.pdf
http://www.image-engineering.de/images/pdf/whitepaper/whitepaper_printertest2.0_engl.pdf

Next try. Inside is the image with borders "outside the selected print size".
Border 1 is yellow, border 2 is grey.
3 floating text fields with align left, centered and align right.

Question: Is it possible to position the text inside the yellow border 1 ?
Or do I need to construct the setup of the floating field in another manner to get also a small border outside the text? I'm printing on 24" roll paper and I'm using "mark corners" for cutting the paper later on.

Creating the right and left aligned text the letters are on the border of the print, but I'd like to have a small border between the text and the print border. Is there a way to archive the desired layout?

Making the left text (no align) free floating I can drag it away from the print border. Doing like this I have problems with the right aligned text. No alignment and free floating the text will be justified at the left side. Alignment of the text at the right side will eliminate the space between the print border and the text... 

Thanks for the hint Terry, but isn't there an easier way to get an equal border at the left and the right side?