QTR-Quadtone RIP

Hello…

I’m following Diallo’s document “Quiadtone RIP, A Better B&W) to create a custom grayscale ICC Profile. I use a Mac (Mavericks 10.9.4), Epson7900 and XRite’s i1Pro. The Diallo’s document uses “Profile Maker” which doesn’t run on my Mac and elsewhere it was suggested to use XRite’s Colorport2 (which seems to work with my Mac).

I’m having trouble creating the target in Colorport2. As written in the Diallo’s document I’ve tried to load the “QTR-21x4-random.txt” file in the “QuadTone Rip/Eye-One” folder and it fails with the message “0 patches” imported. Colorport2 docs mention that the file should be either “tab delimited” or “Comma Separated Values”. So, I imported the file to Microsoft Excel and Pages and exported it as a CSV file. Now when I import this file I get the message “There was a problem importing this file”.

Not making progress with this I tried the method described in “Northlight Images” -

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/bw_printing/bw-print-correction.html

The patch sets the author uses and has made available for download (NI-51-step.tab and NI-21-step.tab) need to be imported by ColorPort2 using the CMYK space; the PSD file of patches (21-step and 51-step) are in grayscale mode. Just wondering if there’s a reason why they need to be imported using CMYK space

Any help with this would be very much appreciated.

Best…

-chetty

I admit to being a bit puzzled about the "entire profile business".  I recognize that some here are very computer savvy, and enjoy making their own profiles for black and white and color printing.  Note that of course there is no criticism directed at such skilled photographers.  Indeed, I wish I had both the skill and the equipment to make such profiles.

 

However, when one can install profiles ( from Jon Cone for BOTH his Piezography and color inks and from various printer manufacturers for virtually every digital paper that one might consider when using their own print tools) why is it necessary to construct one's own profiles?   I currently use Jon's profiles for the black and white printing I accomplish using Piezography and I wonder if other profiles would be at all superior.

 

No doubt I must appear to be naïve.  However, for those of us who do not desire to construct bespoke profiles:  Can't one simply use the profiles provided and then tweak the setting(s) in our editing programs based upon the appearance of the print?  One might consider the first print a "test sheet" and modify accordingly.

 

Elliot

From: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com [mailto:QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2014 1:22 PM
To: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Creating custom gray ICC profile (QTR workflow)

 

  

there has to be a some gotcha in there somewhere making this more difficult than it should be. Maybe take a look here, everything is provided, charts and reference targets for colorport-

http://www.on-sight.com/using-colorport-for-qtr-grayscale-and-alt-process-measurement-and-profiling/

 



It's been working for me without problems

OK…so if I understand correctly, if one is using Jon's new color inks with his QTR profiles/and Piezography inks with his QTR profiles, than one should be absolutely fine?

From: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com [mailto:QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2014 2:58 PM
To: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Creating custom gray ICC profile (QTR workflow)

 

  

unfortunately there are profiles and there are profiles... you are exactly right that supplied "profiles" from Cone, or those supplied with QTR itself for other inksets and OEM, are more than sufficient for excellent printing.
Essentially they are curve sets to control the inks, how they partition, and overall linearity. If you are working in a grayscale space for which they were designed, no "ICC profiling" is really necessary. But an ICC profile is a different animal than a profile used as a curve set directly in QTR, totally, and they are not interchangeable.
The profiling in some of these current threads involve making ICC profiles, with tools supplied in the QTR download, for color or grayscale space conversions, or for softproofing.
One example for a viable use of one would be- I prefer to work in a grayscale space, for my own reasons, other than graylab for general QTR work, or gamma 2.2 for piezography qtr work. So when I print, I have to convert to a profile suited for QTR in the photoshop print dialogue before I ever get to the QTR settings... That's why Roy supplies Gray_Matte_Paper.icc and more.
Hope I have not muddied the waters, there's more to it than that others may be better at articulating

Thanks for the correction Tyler.

 

Elliot

 

From: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com [mailto:QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2014 5:39 PM
To: QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Creating custom gray ICC profile (QTR workflow)

 

  

nope, his QTR "profiles" are made for Piezography B&Q inksets. The Conecolor inks are color OEM replacement inks, so you'd use the profiles in QTR made for Epson inks.