Digital BW, The Print

Bruce,

Workflow in QImage consists simply of loading the image into QImage and 
paper to the printer, adding it to the queue and then (assuming you have 
already set up QImage for the printer/paper size/profile) and clicking 
on print. You then leave it to do the job while you do something else.

It automatically resizes to whatever print size you selected, applies 
appropriate sharpening and spools the file. You don't have to worry 
about overall sharpening or the size of the print, once you have set up 
the program for what you want to do.

You only need to keep one print file for each image, whatever size you 
want to print (obviously within reason.) You would apply any 'creative' 
sharpening to that, although usually none is the best setting before saving.

You only need to resize files and save when sending them out for 
printing or stock elsewhere. Normally I wouldn't sharpen these files, as 
the printer should do so appropriately for the printer concerned.

I'm using a slow old PC here from 2001, though it does have a decent 
amount of memory. Typical time between pressing the print button in 
QImage and my printer starting to print a 15x10" print is perhaps 3-10 
minutes, with tiff files normally in the range 17-130Gb. (You can keep 
files in 16 bit if you wish by the way.)

At 15x10" there isn't really a noticeable difference in quality between 
prints from Photoshop or QImage from a 17Mb 8 bit TIFF file, but if you 
want to make larger prints - where interpolation becomes visible in the 
output - then I think the differences you can see on screen do start to 
show.

Regards,

Peter Marshall
petermarshall@...     +44 (0)1784 456474
31 Budebury Rd, STAINES, Middx, TW18 2AZ, UK
_________________________________________________________________
My London Diary	              http://mylondondiary.co.uk/
London's Industrial Heritage: http://petermarshallphotos.co.uk/
The Buildings of London etc:  http://londonphotographs.co.uk/
and elsewhere......



btvarner wrote:

>I have been following this thread with great interest & decided to do 
>a little test myself.  I must say that the results seem to be the 
>opposite of what most here seem to have found.
>
>I down loaded & installed the latest demo versions for both Qimage & 
>Shortcut Photozoom Pro then did a comparison of prints from the same 
>image.  Unless someone can tell me what I might have done wrong, my 
>results indicate that neither product produces a better image what I 
>am already doing.  Follow and see:
>
>Test images produced by all three products (Qimage, Photozoom, 
>Photoshop) were printed in color (I did not want to introduce another 
>variable into the mix, aka QTR) using my Epson 2200 and OEM inks.  
>Also note that the Raw image I picked was from a Canon 10D & 12x18 is 
>about the absolute maximum size from this camera on my Epson 2200.
>
>My current workflow in Photoshop CS2:
>Canon Raw to Tiff,
>Applied initial Capture sharpening using Photokit Sharpener Pro Plug-
>in,
>Crop as desired,
>Create adjustment layers or layer masks as required,
>Adjustments to Levels, Curves, Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, etc\ufffd
>[At this point I saved the image to four files, one for each products 
>print]
>Re-sampled 1st image to 12x18 at a resolution of 360 in Photoshop 
>using bicubic,
>Applied creative sharpening using Photokit Sharpener Pro,
>Printed using "SP220 EnhancedMatt 2880PK.icc" printer profile,
>All print driver corrections turned off
>
>Qimage workflow:
>Opened 2nd image from above in Qimage,
>Re-sampled image to 12x18 apparently at 720 resolution using Pyramid,
>Saved to another file & closed Qimage,
>Opened this Pyramid re-sampled image in Photoshop,
>Applied Creative Sharpening using Photokit Sharpener Pro,
>Saved file & again opened in Qimage,
>Selected this image & printed,
>took nearly 1 hour for Qimage to do its thing & for the data to 
>spool!!!!!!
>Sharpening in Qimage appeared to be off,
>This print was wayyyyyy over sharpened, so\ufffd\ufffd.
>Picked the 3rd image in Qimage and just resized as above & printed.
>
>Photozoom workflow:
>Opened 4th image from above I Photozoom,
>Re-sampled image to 12x18 apparently at 720 resolution using S-spine,
>Left Photozoom Unsharp Mask on as re-sampled image appeared to be way 
>to blurry,
>Printed.
>
>Results of the four 12x18 prints:
>Photoshop print \ufffd Best by far.  Sharp & clear.  Admittedly could
>be sharper in some areas of the image but normally I can go back into 
>Photoshop and re-apply Creative Sharpening using Photokit Sharpener 
>Pro to just that area & improve image.
>
>Qimage print \ufffd 1st Qimage print looked absolutely phony because
>of over sharpening.  Apparently you cannot apply your own sharpening 
>in another tool and then go back & print in Qimage and obtain the 
>correct sharpening.  2nd Qimage print.  Sharper in certain areas of 
>the image, but still over sharp in others.  Enough that the image did 
>not look real.
>
>Photozoom \ufffd Image was not nearly as sharp as either of the other 
>two.  I attempted to sharpen based on the products previews of my 
>image but no mater how sharp I attempted to make the image on screen, 
>it did not look sharp.  I settled on about half way up for the 
>sharpening settings in Photozoom.
>
>So, am I way off base here?  Just not using Qimage & Photozoom 
>correctly?  I know I am new to both products but I do not see even a 
>savings in time from using these tools.
>
>Puzzled,
>Bruce Varner
>http://brucevarner.com/
>
>  
>
>  
>