Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Clayton Jones" <cj@c...> 
wrote:
> Hello Sanders,
> 
> >Clayton, thanks very much for all the work you've posted to your 
> >pages -- very helpful indeed.   
> 
> You're welcome.  Glad it's helpful.
> 
> 
> >I noted that you remarked that 
> >Merlin needs an adjustment curve because of its contrast
> characteristics.   Have you any clue what that might entail for 
> >users of QTR, especially those of us on the 7600/9600 
> >platform?   Roy, any thoughts on this question?
> 
> Roy is the better one to answer that.  I don't use QTR and as I
> mentioned in another post, I have some questions about using variable
> tone systems on these other papers.  Certainly any such system that
> relies on paper profiles has to take into account both the color and
> the contrast differences.  
> 
> Merlin seems more different than any of the others because it's a warm
> paper that renders ink cool, plus its long curve.  Both are
> unconventional characteristics.  It's a really neat paper that opens
> up a lot of possibilities, but seems like it might be a challenge to
> profile.  So I'm as interested to hear Roy's answer as you are. 
> 
> Regards,
> Clayton
> 
> 
> Info on black and white digital printing at    
> http://www.cjcom.net/digiprnarts.htm

Hi Sanders and Clayton,

First, Clayton, thanks for the paper review.  The number of good papers
these days has made it hard to keep up with.  I'm still mostly a Photo Rag
user but other choices are worth looking into.

I've never used Merlin paper and I'm not sure what you mean by unusual
contrast characteristics.   But the idea with QTR is that you get to 
"linearize" the output.   If the paper somehow absorbs the ink more or
less and the tones are not evenly distributed, with a densitometer you get
to measure the actual print results and make a correction curve that
gets incorporated into the QTR profile so the same file can be printed 
without significant modification.  Its also possible to vary the total amount
of ink that gets layed down on the paper.

BTW, while QTR can do variable tone inks etc. you could use QTR for BO 
printing to take advantage of the ink limits, linearizing and softproofing. 

Roy