Digital BW, The Print

Paul,

The Epson 4000 driver dither is already quite good with just single  
channel BO so it might be a good candidate for multiple Eboni  
channels.  Does the GRAY_OVERLAP function in QTR help at all with  
smoothing out the banding artifacts in the 1800?

Carl

On May 8, 2007, at 3:05 PM, Paul Roark wrote:

> Hi Carl,
>
>> Sounds like a promising approach.
>
> I really like the idea of no color pigments, and the tones I'm  
> getting on
> Premier Art 325 (no OBAs) is just a bit warm, but looks fine to me.
>
> I'm now printing with QTR and 3 jets.  It may be enough to reduce the
> typical one-jet banding sufficiently.  If so, it would allow the  
> 1800 to be
> a full Epson driver color printer as well as a pure carbon QTR  
> printer if
> only matte paper was used.
>
>>  Did you try this with any of the 3.5 pl printers
>
> Not yet.  The single channel 3.5 pl BO is a bit rough, but it is  
> worth a try
> on one of them also.
>
>> ... do the "1.5 pl" printers only use the smallest dot size
>> in the highlights (assuming they use some kind of variable
>> dot size approach) or is this
>> controlled by driver resolution settings?
>
> I'm not sure.  I've been using the highest resolution so far,  
> assuming that
> is going to be needed.  The 1800 is fast enough that the high  
> resolution
> settings are fine.
>
> With QTR (and maybe even with the Epson driver) it may be that  
> staggering
> the curves is needed to control some artifacts.  The Gimp ordered  
> dither is
> not particularly good with this setup when all are on the same  
> curve.  Once
> the curves are varied, the "ordered" nature of the pattern is more
> scattered.  The highlights still seem a bit too ordered, but I'm  
> not sure
> anyone can see that without a loupe.
>
> It's still early in this experimenting, and unfortunately, I'm at a
> disadvantage due to these defective refurbs.  The C,M & Y jets are  
> working
> on this one, so I'm a bit more able to see what a good printer will  
> look
> like.
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com