QTR-Quadtone RIP

once again trying to help a friend solve some problems... do people find, using similarly close to neutral hue settings in each, that QTR has less metamerism failure then the ABW? It does use less color inks, but a K3 newer Espon isn't usingmuch color, granted a bit more. Is it a visual difference? Has anyome noticed?
Thanks, I have no EOM setups here to test it myself.
T

BTW, he got over 1.7 dmax on William Turner with ABW on a new p800 out of the box

Tyler, you haven't got any response to this question. I have a new OEM 3880, and I have dabbled with this sort of comparison only a little, since most B&W is printed using piezo.

I've got a print done on Ilford Pearl using QTR and ABW. The QTR print was done using the shipped neutral curve for Ilford. The ABW was done using the neutral "darker" setting, although I've used a couple of QTR-generated ICCs to enable me to match the prints for density.

The ABW print is moderately cooler than the QTR one, or the QTR one is moderately warmer than the ABW. I'm not sure which one is closest to neutral, although I suspect it's ABW. The three OEM blank inks are supposedly warm by nature aren't they? If so then the ABW driver must be adding more colour to neutralise the warm blacks more than the neutral QTR curve does. I suspect that the QTR one needs a little tweaking to neutralise it better.

In this situation you'd expect the QTR version to have less metamerism issues, non? From a quick test, I couldn't detect major issues with either. I'll try to look again over the next day or so. This may or may not address what you're asking for.

What I can send you are some measure tool scans. I've printed and measured the 21x4 chart on the OEM 3880 using ABW and QTR on a couple of different matte and gloss papers, and you can see how they measure up. You've got my email from an IJM forum PM. I can zip them up and send them if they're of interest.

thanks Brian.. this artist basically just got set up on a p800 and learned ABW for the first time. He is an extremely accomplished and successful darkroom fine art photographer and noticed the difference between silver, and the ABW prints, in terms of metamerism failure, fairly quickly. At first I thought he would not have the patience for QTR, hence my question here. However now he wants to commit to trying it anyway, so we will find out for ourselves.

I'm surprised that he felt that metamerism was such a big issue with ABW. What paper is he printing on? I've had another look at the prints and I guess the ABW does change a little more under different light sources than the QTR print. However I still think that the ABW print is closer to neutral and so any significant change in the lighting source impacts more on how the print is perceived than a slightly warm print. I didn't feel that this was really metamerism as I understand it. Perhaps I'm not discerning enough. He may find the QTR one too warm, but this is something that can be tweaked. I looked under a loupe at both prints, and it's hard to see traces of the colour dots in either. I'd be interested to hear what he finally decides and why.