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Re: Digital Negatives for Platinum Prints - QuadtoneRIP and Canon Pro-4000 (vs. Epson 9000)?

2016-11-30 by sanking@...

I have been making digital negatives for printing with alternative processes for about 15 years, and during that time have used several methods, beginning with Dan Burkholder's colorized negative system, Mark Nelson's PDN, and for the past 5-7 years QTR. For me making digital negatives is far more important than regular inkjet printing so not being able to use QuadtoneRIP with my printer would be a total deal killer. Yes, I could make digital negatives with Canon and HP printers, and have, but there is considerable loss of control using the native printer drivers of these printers compared to using QTR with an Epson.

Another issue one needs to consider is the community of support for digital negatives that exists with Epson printers, both using the native Epson driver and QTR, compared to Canon and HP. I would roughly estimate that more than 95% of photographers making digital negatives are using Epson photo printers so the knowledge base about these printers for this application is great. If you need a QTR profile for albumen or carbon or pt/pd someone will probably be able to give you a good one. If you are using a Canon or HP printer you are going to be pretty much on your own.

So there you have my opinion, such as it is.

Sandy


The Canon seems to edge out the Epson in features such as non-clogging (even with occasional use only or in low humidity), greater gamut (barely), replaceable printhead, ink usage (esp. with no matte/photo black wasting), clear coat “ink”, built-in hard drive, WiFi, print accounting/reporting, etc.

BUT Canon does not offer a straight-through path (eg, metal print panels) nor does it seem to be supported by QuadtoneRIP.

QuadtoneRIP seems critical to enable me to dip my toe into Digital Negatives for Platinum Prints (?)


Any wisdom? (much appreciated)
-c

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