QTR-Quadtone RIP

When will we be able to print borderless with QTR?  As a paying user I 
would like to request this option please.  If there is a reason we 
can't- let me know.  Also is there a way to not print the gloss 
optimizer over the entire page even if we print a 4x6 on 8.5x11" 
paper?  Thanks for a great program!  -p

--- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "psideburns" <psideburns@y...> wrote:
>
> When will we be able to print borderless with QTR?  As a paying user I 
> would like to request this option please.  If there is a reason we 
> can't- let me know.

The version of the GIMPprint drivers that Roy is using won't support it.

It's not such a good idea, anyway. The Epson pigment inks (especially
the matte black) tend to make a mess of the overspray pads in most
Epson printers.

And it's tricky. Either you need to print exactly to the edge of the
paper (a tiny 1/100 of an inch white border looks distracting on a
dark image) or you need to print slightly past the edges of the paper.
In Epson's drivers, for borderless printing they allow something on
the order of 0.10 inches, to allow for the paper size being a little
off, or the paper not being fed exactly from the right stop of the
printer, or the paper not being perfectly straight and "wandering" a
fraction of an inch while printing.

So, either you'd have to do your print scaling yourself to take this
into consideration (i.e. scale an 8x10 borderless image up to
8.2x10.2, carefully maintaining "printer native" 360 or 720 dots/inch)
or your RIP would need a high quality (expensive, or slow, or both)
scaling algorithm.

The infamous Qimage actually has such an algorithm, and it knows how
much overspray the Epson drivers allocate, so you can actually "hand
tune" the amount of overspray based on how accuratly you can load
paper, and how well the paper you use has been cut. Qimage has a
pretty steep learning curve.

> Also is there a way to not print the gloss 
> optimizer over the entire page even if we print a 4x6 on 8.5x11" 
> paper?

Yes, don't tell the printer you're using 8.5x11 paper. Tell it you're
printing a piece of paper 0.25 inches bigger than your image (that
leaves the 1/8 inch border for the driver). For your 4x6, say you're
printing on 4.25x6.25 paper, and QTR will print and GLOP only a 4x6
image. Your image will not be centered on the 8.5x11 if you do this,
it will be on the upper right corner of the page.

If you want to know how to do a 4x6 GLOP covered image in the center
of a 8.5x11 sheet, with the glop only covering the 4x6 image, let me
know. It's a long, complicated, and ugly procedure that I won't go
into unless there's interest.

Another way that I end up using quite a bit is to change the
first value of the GLOP channel to 0. (This is on a mac
where you can edit the .quad files easily). You end up with
a small border around the image, but it doesn't try to
print the rest (blank) part of the page.

Only problem I am aware of here is if you have a 
large area of 0 value in the image, but that doesn't
happen often. If so you can adjust the output values in 
PS to prevent a 0 output value.

Costa 

--- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "koloshor" <koloshor@y...> wrote:

>
> --- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "psideburns" <psideburns@y...> wrote:
> >
> > When will we be able to print borderless with QTR?  As a paying user I 
> > would like to request this option please.  If there is a reason we 
> > can't- let me know.
> 
> The version of the GIMPprint drivers that Roy is using won't support it.
> 
> It's not such a good idea, anyway. The Epson pigment inks (especially
> the matte black) tend to make a mess of the overspray pads in most
> Epson printers.
> 
> And it's tricky. Either you need to print exactly to the edge of the
> paper (a tiny 1/100 of an inch white border looks distracting on a
> dark image) or you need to print slightly past the edges of the paper.
> In Epson's drivers, for borderless printing they allow something on
> the order of 0.10 inches, to allow for the paper size being a little
> off, or the paper not being fed exactly from the right stop of the
> printer, or the paper not being perfectly straight and "wandering" a
> fraction of an inch while printing.
> 
> So, either you'd have to do your print scaling yourself to take this
> into consideration (i.e. scale an 8x10 borderless image up to
> 8.2x10.2, carefully maintaining "printer native" 360 or 720 dots/inch)
> or your RIP would need a high quality (expensive, or slow, or both)
> scaling algorithm.
> 
> The infamous Qimage actually has such an algorithm, and it knows how
> much overspray the Epson drivers allocate, so you can actually "hand
> tune" the amount of overspray based on how accuratly you can load
> paper, and how well the paper you use has been cut. Qimage has a
> pretty steep learning curve.
> 
> > Also is there a way to not print the gloss 
> > optimizer over the entire page even if we print a 4x6 on 8.5x11" 
> > paper?
> 
> Yes, don't tell the printer you're using 8.5x11 paper. Tell it you're
> printing a piece of paper 0.25 inches bigger than your image (that
> leaves the 1/8 inch border for the driver). For your 4x6, say you're
> printing on 4.25x6.25 paper, and QTR will print and GLOP only a 4x6
> image. Your image will not be centered on the 8.5x11 if you do this,
> it will be on the upper right corner of the page.
> 
> If you want to know how to do a 4x6 GLOP covered image in the center
> of a 8.5x11 sheet, with the glop only covering the 4x6 image, let me
> know. It's a long, complicated, and ugly procedure that I won't go
> into unless there's interest.
>