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QTR-Quadtone RIP

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Mac-PC

Mac-PC

2015-02-25 by jacques.caron@...

Hi all

I'll try to make this short.

I exchanged a lot with Paul Roark, Roy Harrington and Richard Boutwell for help. Everything went fine, lots of answers and lots of hints. Now I'm aiming at people, who like me, are on Mac and are emulating a Windows machine.

Since Mr.Roark told me to look at QTRGui on the Win side, I've found the interface quite easy and the linearization tab very useful (I can copy directly to the boxes, the numbers in my spreadsheet). On the Mac side, I bought Print Tool to get rid of any colour management, be it from Photoshop or the system but always had problem with the applet for linearization. (Lab L not in order or other messages).

I asked if the .quad files are the same (made by QTR or made by QTRGui) and the answer is "yes" since they are only descriptor files.


Now, just to experiment a bit, I took one profile made by Mr.Roark (Eb6-EPsHPn-T) and a profile (again thanks Mr.Roark) that is quite a generic one for a matte paper; I used the same file (21-step.tif), the same printer and the same paper. I printed the file with the two profiles with Print Tool and the same file and profiles, using GTRGui. They are not alike!


I wrote to a help group (VirtualBox) and still wait for an answer but, in the meantime, I think that on the emulation part (when printing), there is some control by the system although, using a linearized profile, the Windows print is always better (flatter) than the Mac using PrintTool.


I don't know if I can attach pictures here, but if you ask, I could send you the spreadsheets and the graphs.


Jacques



Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Mac-PC

2015-02-25 by Paul Roark

I am a bit clueless about the Mac side, but does the Mac workflow apply color management to the file, whereas the Windows GUI side does not?

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com
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On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 8:49 AM, jacques.caron@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hi all

I'll try to make this short.

I exchanged a lot with Paul Roark, Roy Harrington and Richard Boutwell for help. Everything went fine, lots of answers and lots of hints. Now I'm aiming at people, who like me, are on Mac and are emulating a Windows machine.

Since Mr.Roark told me to look at QTRGui on the Win side, I've found the interface quite easy and the linearization tab very useful (I can copy directly to the boxes, the numbers in my spreadsheet). On the Mac side, I bought Print Tool to get rid of any colour management, be it from Photoshop or the system but always had problem with the applet for linearization. (Lab L not in order or other messages).

I asked if the .quad files are the same (made by QTR or made by QTRGui) and the answer is "yes" since they are only descriptor files.


Now, just to experiment a bit, I took one profile made by Mr.Roark (Eb6-EPsHPn-T) and a profile (again thanks Mr.Roark) that is quite a generic one for a matte paper; I used the same file (21-step.tif), the same printer and the same paper. I printed the file with the two profiles with Print Tool and the same file and profiles, using GTRGui. They are not alike!


I wrote to a help group (VirtualBox) and still wait for an answer but, in the meantime, I think that on the emulation part (when printing), there is some control by the system although, using a linearized profile, the Windows print is always better (flatter) than the Mac using PrintTool.


I don't know if I can attach pictures here, but if you ask, I could send you the spreadsheets and the graphs.


Jacques




Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Mac-PC

2015-02-25 by Jacques Caron

Hi

As to stop any colour management from the system, the file are saved in Tiff 16-bit and I'm always printing with Print Tool; this piece of software is dedicated at skipping any colour management from Photoshop ( I seldom print directly from Photoshop except colours prints) and the OS (OSX Mountain Lion in my case) is know to play with the setting when we print. That's why I bought Print Tool.

Actually, I think that even if QTRGui is not managing colour, since it's emulated, the print command must surely pass by the OSX to really print; maybe it means that there is some sort of colour management (i.e. the discrepancies). What surprise me is that the QTRGui print is much flatter than the Mac one as you can see here :

Still, I'm following your "easy" approach and we'll see at the end what comes out. The images printed are not so bad but if I want to tweak the profiles, I must find the best way to print and stick to it.

Thanks

Jacques


Le 2015-02-25 à 12:01, "Paul Roark roark.paul@...m [QuadtoneRIP]" <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> a écrit :



I am a bit clueless about the Mac side, but does the Mac workflow apply color management to the file, whereas the Windows GUI side does not?

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 8:49 AM, jacques.caron@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hi all

I'll try to make this short.

I exchanged a lot with Paul Roark, Roy Harrington and Richard Boutwell for help. Everything went fine, lots of answers and lots of hints. Now I'm aiming at people, who like me, are on Mac and are emulating a Windows machine.

Since Mr.Roark told me to look at QTRGui on the Win side, I've found the interface quite easy and the linearization tab very useful (I can copy directly to the boxes, the numbers in my spreadsheet). On the Mac side, I bought Print Tool to get rid of any colour management, be it from Photoshop or the system but always had problem with the applet for linearization. (Lab L not in order or other messages).

I asked if the .quad files are the same (made by QTR or made by QTRGui) and the answer is "yes" since they are only descriptor files.


Now, just to experiment a bit, I took one profile made by Mr.Roark (Eb6-EPsHPn-T) and a profile (again thanks Mr.Roark) that is quite a generic one for a matte paper; I used the same file (21-step.tif), the same printer and the same paper. I printed the file with the two profiles with Print Tool and the same file and profiles, using GTRGui. They are not alike!


I wrote to a help group (VirtualBox) and still wait for an answer but, in the meantime, I think that on the emulation part (when printing), there is some control by the system although, using a linearized profile, the Windows print is always better (flatter) than the Mac using PrintTool.


I don't know if I can attach pictures here, but if you ask, I could send you the spreadsheets and the graphs.


Jacques








Jacques Caron

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Mac-PC

2015-02-26 by Myron Gochnauer

. . . I took one profile made by Mr.Roark (Eb6-EPsHPn-T) and a profile (again thanks Mr.Roark) that is quite a generic one for a matte paper; I used the same file (21-step.tif), the same printer and the same paper. I printed the file with the two profiles with Print Tool and the same file and profiles, using GTRGui. They are not alike!



I’ll be out of town today, so I can’t try this myself, but the next step would be to compare these results with the output from a non-virtual Windows system. I have never been clear on how virtual PCs handle printing. (I use Parallels.)

If no one has tried this by the weekend, I’ll see if I can get a Windows machine up and running, and have a go at it myself. It will have to be different profiles, though, since I don’t use Eb6.

Myron

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Mac-PC

2015-02-26 by Jacques Caron

Hi

Would be nice to see how a "Windows only" machine handle the printing process; even if it's not Eb6, seeing any discrepancies could help to figure it out.

In the meantime, I worked on the Mac side to print a 21-step target unlinearized, then read the patches et typed the results in the unlinearized profile to get a linearized one. Printed again the target with the linearized profile.
Switched to the Win side and did the same procedure but, using QTRGui, I simply copied-pasted the values in the boxes to obtain a linearized profile.

On with the readings (I always wait 24 hours) what I've found is in the same line.
First, the unlinearized prints, the Win side is already flatter than the Mac side.
Second, in the linearized prints version, again the Win side is flatter by a pinch over the Mac side. There is two small "kinks" on the Mac side that I don't see on the Win side.

Now, starting from scratch (means printing in calibration 100% and in calibration 35%) I'll try to create a profile on the Mac side and another one on the Win side.

I'll keep the group up-to-date with it hoping that I can help someone with my results.
Jacques
Le 2015-02-26 à 08:26, "Myron Gochnauer goch@... [QuadtoneRIP]" <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> a écrit :


I’ll be out of town today, so I can’t try this myself, but the next step would be to compare these results with the output from a non-virtual Windows system. I have never been clear on how virtual PCs handle printing. (I use Parallels.)

If no one has tried this by the weekend, I’ll see if I can get a Windows machine up and running, and have a go at it myself. It will have to be different profiles, though, since I don’t use Eb6.

Myron




Jacques Caron

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Mac-PC

2015-03-18 by jacques.caron@...

Now some results. I'll try to be clear.
I'm emulating a Windows machine and installed both QTR (Mac and PC) and I use the same paper, the same ink set and the same printer. (1430 Eb6)

Although the descriptive files (qidf) are readable and usable on both sides, they don't give the same results.

Let's say I print a target with QTRGui, using an unlinearized qidf (this qidf is transformed in a quad file when one push the "Show curve" button). Then I read the patches and input the results (using the boxes in QTRGui) and reprint the target with that linearized profile, I get a nice almost linear output.

If I use the same numbers (the ones I got from my readings) and drop them on the "QTR_LINEARIZE_DATA" applet, I get a line of linearized numbers that I paste in the qdif file; I then print a target with this profile using Print Tool. The results are not so linear.

Conclusion, if you create something in the Mac environment, stay there; if you like to use the QTRGui for building profiles, also print from that environment. Transferring numbers, qidf, quad between the two environment is not really working.

Hope this helps

Jacques

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