The fact that you had this error message suggests that you're on Windows. If you scroll down the posts in this group to around 24-25 Aug you'll see that I had the same error message. I didn't ever solve it directly. It came and went several times and seems to have gone away. It seemed to be related to the number of pixels in the image file rather than the Mb size of the file
In relation to your initial problem of unsmooth gradients, I'd be more inclined to suspect your colour management settings than the file format and bit depth, although creating and printing a 16 bit uncompressed TIFF can't hurt. If you manage to get past this error perhaps you could share your workflow in more detail and esp your CM workflow & QTR settings. QTR should be able to print a pretty good gradient.
---In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, <lindseydwight@...> wrote :
I created a 8 ½ x 11 gradient, 16 bit, Greyscale.
Saved it as a TIFF with no compression.
Now I get an error message “Unable to create TIFF Bitmap buffer”.
What to do?
Thanks!
Dwight