Digital BW, The Print

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the feedback.  
Comments below.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Nick H. Nugent" 
<nghin@p...> wrote:
> Hi Steve, and Roy,
> 
> I meant to write some feedback on the QTR/R800/R1800 solution but got
> sidetracked by something else at the moment. Here are some
> observations based on the available profiles for EEM and my R1800.
> 
> 1. Printing at 1440 super mode is prone to banding. This is typically
> the case with the R1800. It appears there is not enough interweaving
> for the 1.5 pl droplets in the Epson driver or hardware. Toned prints,
> sepia and cool, are less vulnerable to banding.

The profiles were made for 1440x1440 and you need to use this res to get
the 1.5pl drops. 1440super uses more like 3pl drops.  But banding is kind
of a problem there, too.  Even with the smallest drops for the most part there's
only one ink being used so its a lot like black-only.  Maybe that's why Epson 
didn't provide a BO mode?  I'm thinking you just need more ink on the paper
so that it bleeds out a little.

> 
> 2. The supplied profiles were probably made using 1440 dpi mode so
> when printing in 2880 dpi results in heavy ink laydown. Without the
> ability to create profiles for the R1800 I tried to tweak the image
> itself and got a very nice prints using black-only, sepia, and cool
> profiles.
> 
> 3. Printing at 2880 yields much higher dmax.

You can probably try out 2880 by just setting the Ink Limit Adj to -50%.
But it doesn't give more dots vertically.

> 
> 4. Printing in 2880 dpi mode is very slow. QTR pegs the CPU at 100%
> the whole time. But ideally for this printer the printing dpi should
> be something similar to the Epson driver's Photo RPM mode which is
> probably 5760 dpi. Hopefully QTR will support this mode some day with
> reasonably fast printing.

Speed is a problem with the higher dpi's.  There are a few things that I've
looked at to help at least the CPU side of the problem.

> 
> 5. The black-only prints at any dpi on the R1800 is very smooth. The
> dots are almost invisible. Toned prints look even smoother and very
> pleasing.

Is that using the Epson driver?  I think it uses more inks which helps by more
volume of ink but the trouble is is that they are color inks.

> 
> Sofar my wishlist for the R1800 is 1) having an R1800 as a printing
> model (I'm using R800 for the time being), faster printing speed on
> 2880 (maybe not printing speed but more optimized algorithm in QTR?),
> availability of 5760 dpi mode, and of course profiling capability.

All in the works (except the 5760dpi, I think that's mostly hype).

> 
> Overall with the help of QTR the R1800 can really be an all-in-one
> printer for both color and b/w works and of course glossy and matte.

Maybe.

Thanks,
Roy

> 
> --nick
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Stephen Kobrin"
> <kobrins@w...> wrote:
> > Has anyone tried to print with QTR on the R800?  Any impressions
> thus 
> > far?
> > 
> > Steve