First test to make a film positive
2013-12-19 by <beefyzee@...>
For anyone interested in this area of QTR use, I've just done my first tryout using an old vintage Epson Stylus Color 3000. I cannot get the cyan nozzles all working so I've just got the black cartridge in use, and selected not used for all the color cartridges.
Made a curve with the black ink at 100% and 100% boost (I don't think I really know what I'm doing yet).
The results were quite exciting. Now this printer is revered amongst screen printers as a model that gives very dense black prints with the right driver settings (i.e. the stock Epson driver). I've tried that and it's OK, but driving the printer with QTR, the ink layer is definately "thicker" for want of a better word. It's almost like there's a thin black plastic sheet laminated to the transparency.
The edges of the print were not perfectly crisp with evidence of some "feathering", due probably to the volume of ink, but the ink is just cheap Chinese stuff, and the transparencies are just clear sticky labels for inkjets, which I picked up off Ebay. I did not get the edge feathering with less dense printing.
With a more modern printer with better resolution, quality transparencies made specifically for film positive use (ink dries faster), and Epson K3 ink (MK), or purpose made screenprinting ink (always advertised as fast drying), this seems like a cheap and dynamite solution for making film positives / negatives.
Keith.