Digital BW, The Print

Tom
I am reading your instructions on QuadRip and came to the part where it talks about using a densitometer to find the densities of the ink to set up the printing process for the type of ink and paper. I have two questions for you if you don't mind?

1 do you do this process only when you are setting up your new inks and when you are changing paper type?
2 I was looking on line at various sites including ebay and densitometers are quite expensive. do you have any recommendations on what to do about this?

Art


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

There are certainly members of this list who are much more expert than I, so
you might be get a more complete answer by not pointing your questions so
directly at me. However, since you ask what I do, I'll respond. See below

> -----Original Message-----
> From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
> aromanocpa@...
> Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 12:00 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Digital BW] Question for Tom Moore
> 
> Tom
> I am reading your instructions on QuadRip and came to the part where it
> talks about using a densitometer to find the densities of the ink to set
> up the printing process for the type of ink and paper. I have two
> questions for you if you don't mind?
> 
> 1 do you do this process only when you are setting up your new inks and
> when you are changing paper type?

Since I have one, I use a densitometer whenever I feel its use would be
worth the effort. For a new or changed inkset certainly I have always
expended the effort. For a new paper, I usually try an existing profile if I
have one I think might be close and adjust the QTR parameters such as ink
limit or gamma. Then if I'm not happy with something (e.g. dmax or
linearity) I might try redoing the curves and use the densitometer.

> 2 I was looking on line at various sites including ebay and densitometers
> are quite expensive. do you have any recommendations on what to do about
> this?

I depends what you mean by expensive. I paid under $200 including shipping
to get my x-rite 810 with a few calibration tablets. Given that I also
bought a Spider (monitor calibrator) for over $200 a few years ago, I now
wish I had bought an Eye-1 instead since that can be had for about $750 and
does both jobs and much more. Now there even less expensive, and perhaps as
effective for our purposes, solutions such as the Colorvision Printfix Pro.

You could also try using a scanner as a measuring device for curve creation.
It won't be as accurate, but might suit your needs and pocketbook. Paul
Roark has a tutorial on his website that addresses using a scanner. It's
directed at using a scanner to create ICC profiles using QuadProfile, but
the same techniques would apply.

Regards

Tom Moore

I'm not an expert but I use intensively QTR.


> > 
> > 1 do you do this process only when you are setting up your new 
inks and
> > when you are changing paper type?

When you change a paper too : the ink limit can vastly varies. 


> > 2 I was looking on line at various sites including ebay and 
densitometers
> > are quite expensive. do you have any recommendations on what to 
do about
> > this?
> 
Scanner can do for the linearisation, I doubt you get get a 
respectable ICC without a more sophisticated equipment. Besides, QTR 
now softproofs the hue, that would thus call for the use of a spectro 
to really get the most of it. This being said, a densio should do it 
for the icc but hue will not be softproofed : it depends if one cares 
or not.