Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roy Harrington" <roy@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 11:46 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] QuadToneRIP and partitioning curves


(snip earlier)
>
> Kevin, Martin etal
>
> I've been away at a graduation for a few days and I see there's
> been
> lots of action about partitioning and new workflows.
>
> I'm not much for pre-announcing things -- but I guess I've got to
> say
> some about QuadToneRIP.   In between a bunch of other things
> I've
> managed to upgrade to a new version.
>
> First QuadToneRIP 2.0 now has all the obvious stuff:
> 1) Separate control of all 4, 6, and 7 ink epson printers.
> 2) All curves are internally 16 bit to match the gimp-print
> internals.
> 3) blending of two curves for neutral--to--toned ink sets.

Roy,

Being on Windows I'm afraid I haven't followed QT-RIP any better than
IJC/OPM. It too needs to be included in the discussion of software that
offers both a "canned" and detailed control approach.

Sounds like you have the potential to do what Sundance is doing with the
Septone inks and Pixelpixasso, that is have two sets of 3 gray inks in the
printer with a single black and use software to blend say warm and cool
grays as desired. Or am I getting this wrong?
>
> After working for a while with these "raw" 16-bit curves, I found
> that
> partitioning at this level is very simple.  So the new and exciting
> thing is another program I'm calling QuadProfile.  With a couple
> of very straightforward calibration steps to measure the relative
> densities of the various inks, all the partitioning curves are
> generated automatically.  This works for any set and any number
> of inks.  The generated curves give a monotonically increasing
> density but the exact shape can be customized.  Adding toner to
> the gray is fairly easy but manual so far.

Is this all written down some place on the net where people can go and check
it out? I know you have probably posted it but it can't hurt to put it out
there again.
>
> I'm sure this will raise lots of questions so here's a few answers:
>
> System?
> This is a Mac OS X system -- Linux if you do the port.

Being a Mac dummy, does mean you cannot do what people are considering with
OPM. Buy a cheap used Mac G3 and use it as a print server? How much
computing power do you need to run QT-RIP?

>
> Printers?
> Any Epson printer supported by Gimp-print is possible.  I'm
> figuring on all the 4-digit model numbers, and several of the
> 3-digit models (860,870,890,960,980).  Others?

Well there seems to be a real interest in Canon printers.
>
> When?
> The basic QuadToneRIP code has been running for quite a
> while.
> The QuadProfile system is working on my computer, but it's
> currently several programs and shell scripts to connect it all
> together.  I've been working on putting this all in one program
> and one descriptor file.  I have a lot of printing that I need to
> do this month, so work on this is lower priority -- sorry.  If
> anyone is familar with running shell scripts and the Terminal
> program, a beta version with shell scripts can be used.  Email
> me at
> quadtone <at> harrington <dot> com

Shell scripts? Terminal program? You lost me there. How familar with the Mac
and OS X does a person need to be to work with it at this point?
>
> Densitometer?
> It's certainly a very useful tool, but I've been able to get good
> results trying a flatbed scanner for the partitioning.  Contrast
> decisions can for the most part be done visually.
>
Thanks for the info,
Martin