QTR-Quadtone RIP

Hi,

Trying to make a profile for an Epson 3880 and alas I do not have a densitometer or spectrophotometer to help in the task. So I was pleased to discover the stepwedge tool for using a scanner to measure densities because a scanner is what I do have.

I've been reading everything and slowly coming to understand everything, and I think I'm doing everything right. Even got one of the suggested Tiffen 21 step scales. Though I have to admit, everything is a lot, especially considering I'm not the most technical of people, and it's likely I've made a wrong turn some where.

Anyways, when I run the stepwedge script in Photoshop it explodes in all sorts of ways. I've run it in CS3, CS4 and CS5 all with similar results - though the numbers the script tallies up are always different. I've made some screenshots and it's probably easiest to just go look.

http://consumptive.org/qtrstepwedge.html

The first image is a jpg of the Tiff file from my scanner of the Tiffen stepwedge and my stepwedge print from QTR and the 3880 on the paper I'm attempting to profile. The second image is an example of what happens after selecting the the Tiffen stepwedge and running the script. The final image is an example of then selecting the stepwedge from the 3880 and running the script a second time.

Any ideas what I've done wrong? I'm hoping to make this work as the scanner is my best way of making the profile measurements. Thanks for your time and thoughts.

- James