Digital BW, The Print

Hello,

As a relative newcomer to B&W digital printing, transitioning from 
wet chemistry due to lack of access to a dedicated darkroom, I am 
finding the process both exciting and frustrating at the same time.

After talking to the folks at Digital Art Supplies in San Diego I 
played around with some Hahnemuhle Photo rag on my Epson 2200 and 
was fairly impressed (when using matt black ink). 

I tried the Hahnemuhle supplied profile via Photoshop and the Epson 
driver and the metamerism (sp?) was pretty bad, do tried QTR which 
was far better. Roy suggested using the UC-Premiere Fine Art 
settings, and results match very well with the soft proofing image 
using the Hahnemuhle profile for soft proof. What I end up having to 
do is add somewhat of an S curve prior to printing to add a little 
snap to the image. Using a step wedge test it looks like a -10 % ink 
setting may also be an advantage. I have a calibrated monitor 
(Spyder 2). 

My questions are, 

1) Since this paper / printer / RIP combo is fairly popular, can 
others share their setting/experiences? 

2) With custom curves, can QTR produce a split tone type image?

Thanks in advance