QTR-Quadtone RIP

A friend of mine sent me a starter curve for polymer photogravure. The file has the extension .qidf while all of my other curves have the extension .quad. I tried installing it anyway and I get a message that it cannot be opened. I tried changing the extension to .quad and it did install.

Was changing the extension name the correct thing to do? Why the difference in extension name? Any other information about this would be appreciated.

QIDF is Quadtone Ink Descriptor File. It's the Windows flavor of the Mac text files. The quad files are created from the qidf and txt files when you install them, unless you happen to be using something like PiezoDN which creates quad files directly as do Richard Boutwell's spreadsheet apps. 

Not being a Windows guy I might be wrong about this, but I don't think simply changing the extension to quad will install it correctly. Here is the installation procedure I have suggested to Windows friends I make curves for - it may be more complicated than necessary but I know it works:
Copy the file to the following folder: C:\ProgramFiles\QuadToneRIP\Profiles\[your printer] or to the folder where the other digital negative profile is if it is different.
Open QTR and go to Tools > Curve Creation. In Curve Creator go to File > Open and load the file you just copied.
Without making any changes to it, click File > Save As, and when it asks if you want to replace the existing file click Yes. This step seems to be necessary to get the new profile/curve to appear in the drop-down list in QTR.
Now close Curve Creator and go back to QTR. Make sure [your printer] is selected as the printer (both Name and Printing Model). The new profile/curve should now be available to select as Curve 1 in the Curve Setup section.
For Mac:
Copy or move the file to QuadToneRIP > Profiles > [your printer]
Change qidf to txt
Run the Install command

Hopefully, someone with more knowledge of the Windows side will confirm or refute my suggestion.

Cheers,
Keith

Keith Schreiber
jkschreiber.com

> On Feb 23, 2018, at 4:28 PM, lehuhn@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> A friend of mine sent me a starter curve for polymer photogravure.  The file has the extension .qidf while all of my other curves have the extension .quad.  I tried installing it anyway and I get a message that it cannot be opened.  I tried changing the extension to .quad and it did install.
> 
> 
> 
> Was changing the extension name the correct thing to do?  Why the difference in extension name?  Any other information about this would be appreciated.
> 
> 
>

Just change the extension from qidf to txt, then open in your text editor.

> On Feb 23, 2018, at 5:28 PM, lehuhn@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> Thanks for the reply Keith.  I am using a Mac not a PC.
> 
>

Curve Creator is part of the Windows QTR Gui app. We just edit them directly on the Mac side.

> On Feb 23, 2018, at 5:22 PM, lehuhn@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> I found the answer to part of my question in the QTR Guide.  I now understand that .qidf files are curves in their editable form. How do I convert that to a usable form? Do I just change the extension? The guide says to import the .qidf file in to the Curve Creator, but I do not see that in my QTR folder.
> 
> 
> Any help is appreciated.
> 
>