Digital BW, The Print

FYI, I've asked this question before.  As I understand it, the creator of QTR has 
decided that blending of the various curves to achieve each user's view of 
"neutrality" is the better method, rather than providing a "canned" neutral 
curve.  (It's been a long time since I asked this question, so forgive me if I'm 
misremembering what Roy said in response).  That's a fair view, but I still think 
that, as good as QTR is, it would be helpful to have a canned neutral curve.  
I've dipped into QTR from time to time, and even paid the shareware fee, but 
generally use ImagePrint for my 9600,  particularly since I need some of IP's 
other features in addition to neutral grayscale.  On my 4000, I plan to use QTR 
in the future for B&W -- for the moment, it's not an issue since I print my B&W 
on the 9600 via ImagePrint.

The other answer I got in response to this question (not from Roy, but from 
other group members) was along the lines of "you just have to linearize the 
whatchamacallit and build your own neutral curve using a spectrograph 
thingy."  (As you can tell, I don't recall exactly what the response was, but it 
was over my head).  Since I don't know what "linearize" means and don't have 
any measuring tools of my own and don't know how to build my own QTR 
curves, this wasn't practical for me. 

Finally, I got various suggestions on how to combine curves to get a neutral 
tone (25% of this, 75% of that).  I tried and still was not able to come up with a 
curve I considered neutral gray.  (But I'm sure I'll delve into it again someday).  
I do suggest that you  try various combinations to see if you can come up with 
a tone you consider neutral.

Last point: for what you pay for QTR (very little) and how good of a job it does 
generally, I think it's an outstanding piece of software.  But I still wish it had a 
canned neutral curve.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Richard Smallfield <
r.smallfield@p...> wrote:
> Hi, I've recently installed QTR for XP and notice that there is no neutral 
curve. I wondered what people had found the best mix of tones was to get a 
perfectly neutral curve for EEM/HPR?
> 
> I've just experimented with 25% cool Selenium and 75% Warm and with 
small prints, and it looks pretty good. However, I've found that with 10x15" 
prints any slight tonal bias becomes much more noticeable.
> 
> Any thoughts would be appreciated.
> 
> thanks,
> Richard
> --
> http://smallfield.vze.com
> http://photos.smallfield.vze.com
> 
>    "The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, 
>    is to fill the world with fools."
>    --Herbert Spencer