Digital BW, The Print

First thought and reaction to QTR for Windows … It's brilliant.

Thanks Roy – this was most certainly well worth waiting for.  My $50 
will be on its way shortly.

I use XP Home (yes it works – it's not just XP Pro as someone asked) 
with a 2100 (I'm in the UK).  I've been only reasonably happy with 
the standard B&W output from my 2100 and the Epson driver – but the 
edge was taken off by metamerism (yes - it is very definitely 
present) and the very cold prints that I got.  Of course I could do 
adjustments by converting my greyscale images to RGB but never in a 
wholly satisfactory manner.

I installed QTR this afternoon and after a couple of minor hiccups I 
produced the first of a series of 10 test prints - "Out of the 
Box".  I chose a full range image with deep shadows and fine 
highlights.  I've printed different sizes (A4 and A6), all so far on 
EEM (it's still known as EAM in the UK), in the four supplied 
curves – Cool, Cool Sepia, Sepia and Warm, as well as some blended 
curves.  And I've printed some Greyscales to see how smooth the 
gradation is.   And …

Every image is better than that produced by the Epson Driver.  Under 
a loupe there is no evidence at all of coloured dots – unlike the 
Epson Driver that shows them in abundance – no doubt giving rise the 
accursed metamerism.  The greyscales are beautifully smooth from 0% 
to 100%.  The image shows exceptional detail in the shadows as well 
as in the tricky highlight areas.  What more can a printer ask for?

Well perhaps one or two things.  Whilst the maximum black is very 
black(!), when viewed under a loupe there is evidence of less than 
100% ink coverage – the paper base just shows through reducing the 
density to say 99%.  If it were 100% then the blacks would be even 
deeper!

I'm sure all of my euphoria is just a statement of the obvious for 
the Mac users amongst us.  But for us Wind-ees this is both a 
revelation and a revolution.  And to think I was ready to shell out 
for ImagePrint.

I'm about to take delivery of my first MIS inks (UT7).  If, Roy, you 
can soon provide some curves for that inkset too then I'll be in 
printer's heaven.

I've been printing with inks for almost 4 years now.  I started with 
Lyson Quad Black, then Piezography, then Ultrachromes, now with QTR 
with UT7 to come – and it just keeps getting better all the time.

My hiccup today was when I printed an image that was the correct 
printing size at something like 2409 dpi.  It produced a very weird 
vertical banded effect.  But previously I'd printed the same image 
at 360 dpi with no problem at all.  So I re-sized the image to 
360dpi (an exact factor of 1440/2880) and it worked perfectly.  So, 
a question - is it necessary to do this for all QTR printed images?  
And if so – why?

Onwards and upwards ...

Steve Gledhill
www.virtuallygrey.co.uk