QTR-Quadtone RIP

-----Original Message-----
From: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com [mailto:QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of ve2caz
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 1:49 PM
To: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: QImage

Bear in mind that I am investigating this so I have no real experience
with any of these software but what follows is my understanding.

Basically Canon and HP printer drivers expect images at 600 ppi
whereas Epson printer drivers expect images at 720 ppi. These drivers
will accept images at other ppi settings but then the printer drivers
are forced to scale the images back to these values.

There are a variety of scaling algorithms out there but they do not
all produce the same quality when used. Photoshop scaling usually
involves Bicubic/Bicubic Smoother/Bicubic Sharper to name a few. If
you scale an image to say achieve a print of 8"x10"@300 ppi and send
it to the printer driver, the driver will scale it further using some
algorithm so that the results are 8"x10"@720 ppi for an Epson printer.
The result of which is two passes of scaling with less than perfect
algorithms.

That is where Qimage comes in. If you leave your image set at 300 ppi
and at the native resolution this would normally generate an image in
5"x7" size for example, you would just go into Qimage and ask it to
print the image at 8"x10". Qimage will take care of all those details
and produce the highest quality print.

Now this claim is really based on having access to scaling algorithms
that are of very high quality. You could do this yourself if you have
other tools allowing you to scale images and then just print them off.

The fact is that Qimage just makes this simple and takes care of lots
of annoying things that you would normally have to do.

What I do not know is what happens if you scale an image using Qimage
so that it is at 720 ppi (or 600 ppi) and then feed this to QTRIP?

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that QTRIP expects files to be at
300 ppi so I don't know if this would defeat the purpose of high
quality scaling of images for the purpose of preventing the driver
from scaling it using some unknown algorithm.

I hope this helps.

Pierre

--- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "mohonk1986" .> wrote:
>
> I prepare my work in PhotoshopCS2 and print on the Epson 2200 using
> the QuadtoneRIP. I have noted and am confused by references to Qimage.
> What role, if any, should QImage play in the workflow? What are the
> purported advantages? I would appreciate explanation of that program
> as it relates to QuatoneRIP. Thank you. Joachim
>