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Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

2018-10-29 by david@...

I use QTR on a Mac but must provide some user information to Windows users in an upcoming book.

My understanding is that while the Mac version uses a plain .txt file for profiles, the Windows version uses files with a .qidf extension.


1. What does .qidf stand for?

2. Is it also just a plain text file, or something else?

3. Can it be opened in a simple text editor and edited manually, like the Mac text files?

4. If not, MUST a .qidf file be edited within the Windows QTR interface?

5. If .qidf files can be directly manipulated as text files, can one also directly run the install script in the relevant profiles folder with a double-click as on the Mac, again bypassing the QTR interface?

6. Can .qidf files be manually duplicated and manually renamed, again, without the QTR GUI?


What I am hoping for is to be able to give the exact same instructions to users of both platforms.

Re: Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

2018-10-29 by skapuskar@...

I teach workshops on digital negs using QTR, and I admit it is not hassle free to offer the full workflow seamless to both, PC and Mac users.
Questions 1-6 will be answered more precisely by the makers of QTR.
My biggest challenge was to get QTR working correctly on the win10 OS platform. The administrator rights place important hurdles in accessing the QTR folders and files, also, curve creation works in limited ways. I spend the whole last weekend figuring out a solution to get it to work for one of my PC participants from last weeks workshop, we finally worked it out (I have a Mac and installed a virtual win10 platform to test the PC workflow).
I can only encourage you to test the complete PC/Mac work through on both (and latest) operating systems, before offering a confirmed and working workflow for your upcoming book.

Sidney

Re: Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

2018-10-29 by richard@...

QIDF Quad ink descriptor file

it is just a plain text file can be opened in something like notepad++, edited, saved.

then it needs to be opened in QTRgui curve creation tools, and then hit show curves to make the .quad file curves. I don't know if there is something equivalent to the drop-quad applet on windows.

Hope that helps,
Richard Boutwell

http://www.richardboutwell.com/

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

2018-10-29 by Simone Simoncini



Il lun 29 ott 2018, 21:58 david@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> ha scritto:

I use QTR on a Mac but must provide some user information to Windows users in an upcoming book.

My understanding is that while the Mac version uses a plain .txt file for profiles, the Windows version uses files with a .qidf extension.


1. What does .qidf stand for?

Guess quadtone ink descriptor file

2. Is it also just a plain text file, or something else?

Plain text

3. Can it be opened in a simple text editor and edited manually, like the Mac text files?


Yes

4. If not, MUST a .qidf file be edited within the Windows QTR interface?

5. If .qidf files can be directly manipulated as text files, can one also directly run the install script in the relevant profiles folder with a double-click as on the Mac, again bypassing the QTR interface?

If I remember correctly you have to open your manipulated file and have the software generate the .quad file. Basically the qtrgui in windows has the functionalities you find in qtr curve view and qtr drop quad on the mac

6. Can .qidf files be manually duplicated and manually renamed, again, without the QTR GUI?

Yes


What I am hoping for is to be able to give the exact same instructions to users of both platforms.

Re: Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

2018-10-29 by brian_downunda@...

1. My understanding is that qidf stands for QTR Ink Definition File, or something like that.

2. It is just a text file, and so ...

3. It could be edited in just a text editor, but ...

4. Windows users have the advantage over Mac users that QTRGui contains a Curve Creator component, which allows you to edit the qidf files in a GUI interface, thereby removing the risk that you'll get the structure of the qidf/txt file wrong. Saving a qidf generates the quad. There was a problem in W10 whereby the curve creator had problems storing files (both qidf and quad files IIRC) in the correct locations, but Roy has fixed this in recent releases.

5. There is no install command on Windows. You just place the files in the correct folders and they will appear in QTRGui. There are in fact two options, one of which requires administrator rights. See this post:
This is for files you download, e.g. Piezography. If you use the curve creator to generate curves then my recollection is that the quad is automatically generated and should appear as an option in QTRGui without any further intervention.

In theory you should be able to transfer QTR-related files from Win to Mac and visa-versa. In practice I've had problems using ICCs on a Mac that were QTR-generated on Win, but qidf and quad files are just text files and seem to transfer without issue. Except perhaps that on Mac there is a 32 character limit on the file name for a quad which doesn't seem to apply on Win.

6. Yes.


---In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, <david@...> wrote :

I use QTR on a Mac but must provide some user information to Windows users in an upcoming book.

My understanding is that while the Mac version uses a plain .txt file for profiles, the Windows version uses files with a .qidf extension.


1. What does .qidf stand for?

2. Is it also just a plain text file, or something else?

3. Can it be opened in a simple text editor and edited manually, like the Mac text files?

4. If not, MUST a .qidf file be edited within the Windows QTR interface?

5. If .qidf files can be directly manipulated as text files, can one also directly run the install script in the relevant profiles folder with a double-click as on the Mac, again bypassing the QTR interface?

6. Can .qidf files be manually duplicated and manually renamed, again, without the QTR GUI?


What I am hoping for is to be able to give the exact same instructions to users of both platforms.

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

2018-10-29 by Simone Simoncini

Ps. I use mac, the info I have on windows are based on windows 7, I seldom use windows just for some special tasks
Show quoted textHide quoted text
Il lun 29 ott 2018, 21:58 david@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> ha scritto:

I use QTR on a Mac but must provide some user information to Windows users in an upcoming book.

My understanding is that while the Mac version uses a plain .txt file for profiles, the Windows version uses files with a .qidf extension.


1. What does .qidf stand for?

2. Is it also just a plain text file, or something else?

3. Can it be opened in a simple text editor and edited manually, like the Mac text files?

4. If not, MUST a .qidf file be edited within the Windows QTR interface?

5. If .qidf files can be directly manipulated as text files, can one also directly run the install script in the relevant profiles folder with a double-click as on the Mac, again bypassing the QTR interface?

6. Can .qidf files be manually duplicated and manually renamed, again, without the QTR GUI?


What I am hoping for is to be able to give the exact same instructions to users of both platforms.

Re: Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

2018-10-29 by skapuskar@...

5. If .qidf files can be directly manipulated as text files, can one also directly run the install script in the relevant profiles folder with a double-click as on the Mac, again bypassing the QTR interface?

There is no 'install command' on PC in the profile folder.

You modify your profile in the Curve Creation Tool. Once you save it, it is automatically saved as a .quad profile.

With a few tweaks and workarounds on PC, you can obtain equal results as on a Mac, but the workflow descriptions for both platforms are quite different.

Sidney

Re: Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

2018-10-29 by skapuskar@...

Hi Brian,

small hijacking of the original post...

There are in fact two options, one of which requires administrator rights. See this post:
This is for files you download, e.g. Piezography....

I went through that post, all I could get to was:
C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\QuadToneRIP

...with a 'bin' folder in it, no profile folder.

Sidney

Re: [QuadtoneRIP] Re: Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

2018-10-30 by forums@walkerblackwell.com

Yes, it generates a .quad file from the .qidf

> On Oct 29, 2018, at 7:27 PM, skapuskar@... [QuadtoneRIP] <QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> 5. If .qidf files can be directly manipulated as text files, can one also directly run the install script in the relevant profiles folder with a double-click as on the Mac, again bypassing the QTR interface?



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: Need information from Windows platform QTR users...

2018-10-30 by brian_downunda@...

From that post I linked to, the two options are:

OPTION (i) C:\Program Files (x86)\QuadToneRIP\ - the Quadtone sub-folder for quad files and the Profiles sub-folder for qidf files. By convention, each printer model has it's own sub-folder. So for example for the 3880 the two folders are:

C:\Program Files (x86)\QuadToneRIP\Profiles\3880-uc
C:\Program Files (x86)\QuadToneRIP\QuadTone\Quad3880

If you download and place files in either folder you will need administrator privileges.

-----------

OPTION (ii) C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\QuadToneRIP - again the Quadtone sub-folder for quad files and the Profiles sub-folder for qidf files. E.g. for the 3880 again:

C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\QuadToneRIP\Profiles\3880-uc
C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\QuadToneRIP\QuadTone\Quad3880

You do not need administrator privileges to place files in this location. This is where the QTRGui Curve Creator places files that it creates. It is a location where software stores user-generated files away from the Program Files hierarchy, I assume as a security measure. Also so that different users can have their own set of custom files.

These folders probably will not exist until you've run the QTRGui Curve Creator once and created some curves. You could create them yourself if they don't already exist, to store downloaded curves without having to invoke administrator rights.

There is no install command. Once files are in either location, they just appear in QTRGui. The Windows OS combines the list of files in both locations and seamlessly shows them as a single combined list.

--------------

I thought this was reasonably clear from the posts I linked to. I hope it's crystal-clear now.





---In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, <skapuskar@...> wrote :

Hi Brian,

small hijacking of the original post...

There are in fact two options, one of which requires administrator rights. See this post:
This is for files you download, e.g. Piezography....

I went through that post, all I could get to was:
C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\QuadToneRIP

...with a 'bin' folder in it, no profile folder.

Sidney

Move to quarantaine

This moves the raw source file on disk only. The archive index is not changed automatically, so you still need to run a manual refresh afterward.