QTR-Quadtone RIP

I use QTR on Windows (7) and often edit the PPD that QTR uses for my printers (found in C:\Program Files (x86)\QuadToneRIP\PPD) to include a number of custom page sizes, change the default page size etc.

I have the opportunity to dabble with a MacOS machine at the moment (10.8.x). I see the PPD files in Library/... in gz form. My question is, can I edit the PPD file in much the same way as in Windows, and still have QTR pick up the changes?

I know that QTR installs as a printer driver on MacOS, which has some advantages, but thought perhaps that this would make it harder to hack the printer settings.

My trusty MacOS advisor has pointed out that since QTR installs as a printer driver in MacOS, defining custom paper sizes is simple, much like in Windows.

So let me take this a step further. What I'd also like to do is change the order of the inks in the PPD, because the inks are in non-standard slots in the printer, and obviously I'd also need to change the top line of the quad files to match. So my question about whether the PPD file can be edited on MacOS still holds.

Thanks Roy. Much appreciated. It's the "before installing the printer" part that I suspect is the critical part on a Mac.

To fess up to what I'm trying to achieve, I use Piezo, so I only have the quad files. I'm using an R1900/R2000, so curve (.quad) availability is more limited. The R1900 is virtually physically identical to the R2880. I've discovered that I can use any of Jon's x880 curves on the R1900 if I shuffle the order of the inks in the quad file to suit the R1900. So I did as you suggested, and developed a spreadsheet to shuffle the numbers around, printed and tested. Works a treat. Means that the R1900/R2000 is not such an outlier as it is sometimes claimed to be, at least for piezo and presumably also for Eb.

But the spreadsheeting is a little tedious. Only after doing this did I realise that perhaps all I needed to do was to edit that top line in the quad file to shuffle the order, and of course make a matching edit to the PPD. Not hard on Windows, but harder on a Mac. Perhaps not worth the trouble. The spreadsheet seems easier if you want it for both OS.

(Yes, I realise that if I was to edit the .quad & PPD like this, then *all* the quad files would need to have the inks in that order, but that wouldn't be a problem for this specific purpose.)