Digital BW, The Print

Hi all, I am new to this group, My name is Steve Law, so a little history about me would be nice.

I work at a frame shop out in CA and we have an Epson 7600-UC and a 9600-UC printer, with which we reproduce local artists work.

I myself am a B&W photographer and recently found out about QuadTone RIP. I got very excited as could be expected.

The first thing I want to say is we are using Lyson Cave Paint Inks in our printers.

I went about trying to create some curves using QTR and came away a little discouraged. I am having problems with the "Ink Separation Test Page - Determining Ink Limit".

The instructions state that the printers we have usually achieve 
high numbers in the 80% to 90% for the ink limit. (This is from page 13 in the User Guide prepared by Tom Moore ver. 1.1 April 2005.)

I am only getting 25% to 35% in the Blacks and very little more in M and C and just a little more yet in LC, LM, and LK.

Here are two questions: #1. Could this be due to the fact that we are using Lyson Cave Paint Inks? #2. How does this relate to gamut?

I haven't been able to glean much from the group posts to really tell one way or the other.

Thanks for all of your patience in reading this post.
Sincerely, Steve Law

"Steve Law" <stevenelaw@...> wrote:

Welcome to the group, Steve.

There is also a forum devoted just to QTR that might help.  See 
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/QuadtoneRIP/

>... recently found out about QuadTone RIP. 

>... using Lyson Cave Paint Inks in our printers.
 
> ... "Ink Separation Test Page - Determining Ink Limit"...

> I am only getting 25% to 35% in the Blacks and very little 
> more in M and C and just a little more yet in LC, LM, and LK.
> 
> Here are two questions: #1. Could this be due to the fact 
> that we are using Lyson Cave Paint Inks?

Could be.

I'm not sure what the 7600/9600 usually get.  I'm using a 35 limit on a desktop unit that I was profiling yesterday.  A low ink limit is not necessarily bad.

> #2. How does this relate to gamut?

It may have no effect on it.  With the printer I was working with yesterday the dmax was very good at a black limit of 35.  I'd guess that is about the same as gamut for color. 

Good luck with QTR.  It's a very handy tool.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

Hi Steve.
Keep in mind that QTR in calibration mode is putting out ink at the maximum rate the printer can send. The various third party inks do differ so variance from the OEM inks is not unusual and papers may react to them differently as well.

If you set the proper ink limits in QTR as you seem to be doing
you will end up with the maximum gamut attainable with that ink and paper when finished with linearizing the set. Whether or not a different ink set could do better would have to be determined by comparing your d'max density with others using the same machines and papers with other ink sets and QTR.

Regards,
Duane



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Steve Law" <stevenelaw@...> wrote:

>> 
> Here are two questions: #1. Could this be due to the fact that we are using Lyson Cave Paint Inks? #2. How does this relate to gamut?
>