Digital BW, The Print

Hi All,

There seems to be lot's of problems and some pretty novel solutions 
showing up with attempts to get QTR/GUI running ;>)

Thought I'd mention a couple of things here that may be of 
assistance, though they may not be exactly the "solutions" you want 
to hear. That being said...

1. As an old hand at working through some of these same kinds of 
issues, I'd like to pass on a really simple but fundamental tip that 
I learned the very hard way (meaning, I no longer have any hair left 
to pull out ;>)). That is: when all else fails, start with a 
clean, "plain vanilla" system.

2. What does that mean? Well, when you do a lot of print production 
work and you haven't been through all these "trials by fire" and 
learned how to sort out these kinds of problems, you're best off 
working with a system that is pretty much dedicated to post-
processing and printing. i.e., clean OS install (your choice), bare 
minimum of other applications installed (photoshop, imaging tools and 
your printer RIP/drivers, etc.). The less the better!

3. Why? Well, when we have a machine we've been using for quite a 
while that's full of all kinds of software and applications that have 
been installing their "stuff" all over your system, you're working in 
an unknown environment. It's like trying to get anywhere (you pick 
the destination) when you don't know where you are -- even when us 
guys break down and ask for directions, nobody can help very easily 
because we don't know where we are to begin with ;>)

4. "But the computer was working fine..." you say? Yes, probably. But 
Roy Harrington and Steve Billard have put incredible amounts of work 
into making a really nice RIP/GUI combination available more out of 
dedication to the art than anything else. They're talented and 
generous to a fault, you might say -- but they really have no way of 
predicting and building their system for an infinite number of 
computing environments full of unknown variables. If neither one of 
them can give you an easy fix for your dilemma, then it's time for 
a "plan B" approach

5. "What -- go out and buy another computer?" No, not necessarily, 
though not a bad idea. Hardware is cheap -- time and the cost of 
stress isn't. However, there are some simple, no cost approaches like 
installing another "clean" OS instance on another partition of your 
drive. It's really cheap (free except for your time), and gives you 
an uncluttered clean slate to work with and then you shouldn't have 
any issues installing either application that can't be easily resolved

6. Don't know how to do a "dual-boot" installation or alternately, 
have another older system hanging around you can use to start 
from "bare metal"? Hmmmm. Well, then I might suggest for your own 
sanity as we race toward the Holiday season when everyone get's a 
little crazy anyway, that this might not be the best time to tackle 
these problems

Or, for less than a hundred bucks, you can get a nice little C84 
printer and a set of MIS "EZ" UT2 "quadtone" carts developed by 
another esteemed member of this group, Paul Roark -- and print your 
Holiday cards, family pics or whatever without so much as a fuss or a 
RIP (Thanks, Paul!). You'd better hurry, though -- if you go that 
route, MIS is going to shut down and stop shipping on Tuesday, 12/21

7. Personally, I've installed Roy's QTR on a half-dozen different 
machines and used it without the GUI. Win2K, WinXP, Epson 2200's,  
9600, and a couple of other odd machines running Piezotones. All 
without a hitch. I guess I was lucky. When Steve brought out his work 
of love we all call the "GUI" to make the process easier for us, it 
also worked like a charm. An occassional glitch in the earlier 
releases, but Steve has been incredibly responsive in churning out 
revisions of the GUI to keep up with Roy and the various problems 
people have had in different computing environments

8. Just so that we're all being really fair, problems like the ones 
you're experiencing can happen with ImagePrint, StudioPrint, PiezoBW 
or any other of the numerous systems we've been fortunate enough to 
have made available to us to further our art -- these kind of "head-
scratchers" aren't the exclusive domain of QTR/GUI -- but since Roy 
has made his QTR code available as very modestly priced "shareware" 
and Steve has made the GUI available for the same or less <grin>, 
there are a lot of people trying to make it work on all kinds of 
systems and software environments and uncovering some really 
facinating anomolies ;>)

9. So, if all else fails and you don't want to bother setting up a 
clean computing environment without all the variables or try some EZ 
UT2 inks, or... I'm sure there are a dozen other similar solutions -- 
well, there's always Costco. You can have them (or your local 1 hour 
lab) print out "dead neutral" B&W cards for less than a buck a piece, 
while you wait out the hour or so enjoying a nice "cool one" at the 
corner pub ;>)

10. I guess the bottom line from what I'm reading is that unless you 
really understand your systems and the QTR/GUI software you're 
working with, it's best to start in a clean, uncluttered and known 
environment (i.e., know exactly where you are so Steve and Roy or 
some other kind forum member can have the benefit of helping you get 
to where you're going without guessing where you're starting from)

Most of all, 'tis the Season to be Jolly -- so I hope I haven't 
ticked anyone off with these suggestions. I certainly don't mean to 
offend a single person here, but if you're having a lot of strange 
problems than there's no better panacea than starting fresh at a time 
when you don't feel pressured. ImagePrint might solve your problem, 
but then, you might end up throwing more money at something that 
doesn't. And this is supposed to be fun, yes? ;>)

OK, so that's my admittedly unsolicited ten cents worth and I 
sincerely hope that it will help some of you to have a Happy Holiday 
Season and perhaps provide a starting point for you to master QTR or 
whatever system you end up adopting by working at a time when you're 
not pressured, from a fresh, uncluttered computing environment, and 
save you some of this intense and perhaps unnecessary frustration.

Cheers and a Happy Holiday Season to all!

Richard

P.S. Just helped my son deliver several hundred cards, some color, 
some quadtone, to his customers -- but neither of us would have 
thought twice about outsourcing the task if we ran into a glitch. 
Fortunately, we've been through the evolution of the "light-room" 
from the early days, currently run a wide variety of printers using 
different RIPs and inksets, and have learned by experience, sometimes 
very painful experience -- that the advice I'm offering is a "pill" 
I've had to learn to swallow myself more than once...