QTR-Quadtone RIP

Diane Fields wrote:

> Jean-Marc,
>  
> The softproofing should be the same as with the 2200.  You cannot 
> 'softproof' the blends, but rather the tonality and contrast.  
> Printing step wedges on your chosen paper with the blends you prefer 
> is the best way to 'preview' what to expect from those.
>  
> Use the gray-LAB profile (from the QTR download page) to softproof in 
> PS.  You will process a b/w as usual, convert to gray-LAB, use your 
> softproof with  either the gray matte or gray photo profile depending 
> upon the paper/ink to be used.  Then set the proof with perceptual 
> intent, black ink.  Now you can adjust tonality and contrast by a 
> variety of means, dodge and burn, etc. as needed.  When done, save 
> this (gray LAB) as your master file (that way you can print with 
> either ink), convert this to either gray matte or gray photo profile 
> and save.  Open this file in QTR and set your blends, ink as desired 
> and print.
>  
> Hope this helps.
>  
> Diane

It is a bit faking things but I have customised one Prove It! made 
monitor profile in Kodak's Custom Color Tools so it shows the images in 
sepia in most of the programs I use. Could do the same for the other 
tastes of the quads I have. Crude choices for the extremes in toning at 
most. There's no other choice left if you want to keep the images in 
greyscale.  Maybe a Photoshop plugin could do something similar without 
affecting the actual image in print. With neutral RGB images something 
can be done with the printer profiles Matte and Gloss, just the feedback 
side of the profile that is used for proofing. doesn't affect printing 
either. But that will be crude too, maybe three tastes of both profiles.

I don't think that Stephen longs for more complexity in QTRgui but 
that's the only place where you could make a link between slider 
settings and the display. The users should associate the heaviest toning 
settings with color samples provided. It could work with a rough color 
engine. Mixing with the sliders then shows in the preview too.

Ernst