QTR-Quadtone RIP

I want to be clear that I like and respect Mark Nelson. He put a lot of work into developing his system (more than two years) and feels he should be compensated for that. It is unique in concept and works like a charm. It was absolutely the best system when printers only had one black ink in the inkset.

Ron Reeder is extremely approachable and helpful. I think his method is as good as PDN given where printer technology is today. But it is much more trial and error during calibration. It takes me about twice as long to do a calibration using his QTR method versus PDN.

You should also check out Jon Cone's blog. He has done a lot of work with Piezography and digital negatives. Problem is there is a large initial investment in his inks and delivery system as well as a dedicated printer for negs as he used different inks for negs than for b&w printing on digital papers. 

Alan


On Jan 17, 2012, at 1:46 AM, stormbytes wrote:

> Alan,
> 
> Interesting that you point it out. I guess I'm not the only one annoyed with Mark Nelson's extensive (and fairly greedy) patent scheme. No one else (pick your author) seems to place such hurdles in the way of teaching creativity.
> 
> I'm a big fan of Ron Reeder. I've purchased his recent book on making digital negatives for platinum/palladium printing (which he noted would work well for silver gelatin too!) and emailed him with questions on a number of occasions. He's a great guy!
> 
> While I'm just starting out experimenting with QTR and Ron's method, I've come across enough material to be optimistic. 
> 
> --- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, Alan Vlach <alanvlach@...> wrote:
> >
> > Check out Ron Reeder's site. He has a procedure for making negatives with QTR. I use QTR and Mark Nelson's Curve Calculator software to execute the steps and calculate the curves. PDN itself is based on the use of color (and no black inks) to create smooth tonalities in the digital negative. I have used it extensively and it is an excellent method to make negatives, but is patented ( you can't teach it without permission which he only gives to university professors or use it for profit without paying a commission) , and, since I teach workshops in making negatives I have switched to using QTR. Ron Reeder's method mixes all the inks when making a negative and I feel the results are as good as PDN. The only downside is that PDN is very stepwise and straightforward during the calibration process whereas there is a lot of testing and guesswork to determine the right ink mix using QTR when mixing all the inks. 
> > 
> > Hope this helps
> > 
> > Alan
> > 
> > 
> > On Dec 26, 2011, at 3:22 PM, mysteriousmirage wrote:
> > 
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > Has anyone had expereince using the Mark Nelson Precision Digital Negative system with QTR? If so, what has been your expereince? 
> > > 
> > > Thanks,
> > > 
> > > -Ted
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> 
> 



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