QTR-Quadtone RIP

Tyler, you wrote

> What constitues a typical quad ink set?

I should have written archetypal quad ink set. One that is 
entirely monochrome or very close to it, the ones we started with.

> Also, given the capability of QTR, including the slider, I can imagine
> many convoluted combinations of carts from the various inks Jon sells
> that could be vialble and beautiful given a creative brain...

My suggestion to create that slider doesn't limit its use for 
other ink sests

> Various MIS inks as well, though I'm not familiar with them any more.
> Jon's correct about the K7s assuming one is using them as intended,
> then the slider is not relevant.

Thought so too about Jon's reply but that doesn't make it less 
relevant for QTR in general.

> If the N color printers ( is not a x600 or x800 an N color printer?)
> offer anything to someone like me, it's simply more slots to do what I
> want with. From what I've heard so far, I don't know what all the
> noise is about other than the usual marketing din.

On the Photokina and in an email exchange with one of the HP 
developers I got pretty good idea how the Gray Balance part + 
HP Preview plug-in works for B&W. While things can be improved 
(and they listen) it looks good in my opinion. Calibrated at 
the bottom, reasonable soft proof concept, ease of use and 
flexibility to name the most important aspects of the 
software. Good Dmax on mat and gloss, neutral monochrome inks, 
gloss enhancer. Minimal color added and good fade resistant 
with the N-colors added.

I think an N-color printer is a printer that uses hues beyond 
the CMY range. So CcMmYyKKKKKK isn't an N-color printer. It 
could even be set stricter: the engine that drives it should 
go beyond CMYK and is essentially more than a 4 channel 
machine. Hard to get the facts of that above the table. For 
example I have the impression that the new HPs are still 8 bit 
in the driver and not 10-12 bit like the new Canons are but 
information so far is contradicting.

BTW, not mentioned in most Photokina reports but a real first: 
a new consumer grade A4 HP flatbed/film scanner has 6 color 
channels, 96 bit data. My guess is that this N-color  printing 
and scanning is a first sign of multi-spectrum digital imaging 
getting to normal pros and consumers. Not as scientific as 
already is done in art reproduction + archiving in some of the 
big musea on this planet but still faster available to a wider 
market than I expected. Editing software in the middle may be 
the bottleneck for a long time to come. HP Scanjet G4010.

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/10766/hp_scanjet_g4010/

The most important thing of the HP Z models is that they 
incorporate excellent quad and color printing with good 
profiling for color and the basic calibration for B&W, all in 
one machine.  I know the time it takes to keep two machines 
running for different jobs.

Doesn't look like a machine that you would convert to other 
inksets. More a machine you would like to use without thinking 
of tweaks.


Ernst
                    --
           Ernst Dinkla


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