QTR-Quadtone RIP

My main printer is the 2200 with OEM inks and if I understand things
correctly printing with QTR uses the black and light black inks with
maybe a touch of color ink for toning.

I also have an Epson 1160 that I'm considering dedicating to B&W with
MIS UT inks. The 1160 uses black and 3 colors normally and I
understand the UT inks will be black, light black and a couple of toners.

Will I gain anything in quality by using the 1160 with UT inks over
the 2200 with UC inks?  They both sound like 2 inks and two toners.

I must keep the 2200 as is with the OEM inks so dedicating it is not
an option.

Larry

Hi Larry,

The UT inks for the 1160 are actually black, 2 grays and 1 toner.
So its possibly smoother than a 2200 with UC inks.  However there
very few profiles for that setup.  If you are up to making you own
profiles then it's probably a viable idea.

Roy

On Tuesday, September 12, 2006, at 08:13  PM, Larry wrote:

> My main printer is the 2200 with OEM inks and if I understand things
> correctly printing with QTR uses the black and light black inks with
> maybe a touch of color ink for toning.
>
> I also have an Epson 1160 that I'm considering dedicating to B&W with
> MIS UT inks. The 1160 uses black and 3 colors normally and I
> understand the UT inks will be black, light black and a couple of 
> toners.
>
> Will I gain anything in quality by using the 1160 with UT inks over
> the 2200 with UC inks?  They both sound like 2 inks and two toners.
>
> I must keep the 2200 as is with the OEM inks so dedicating it is not
> an option.
>
> Larry
>
>
-
Roy Harrington
roy@...
Black & White Photo Gallery
http://www.harrington.com

I use the 1160, and it makes gorgeous prints, especially when you go to
warm-tones, with very little of the blue toner.  I think that perhaps
the droplet sizes are a bit smaller with the 2200, but the wider
gradations available with the black and two gray shades more than makes
up for that (IMHO).

If you go the the 1160, you will need to get into building your own
profiles.  Not terribly difficult if you have a simple but accurate
reflective densitometer (lots available on e-bay, for various prices). 
You can also use a scanner that has good predictable linear response,
but even that tends to be more trial and error.  Finally, it really is
possible to build profiles by "eyeball" but that is quite tedious.  If
you do get into building profiles, you need to know that the
"liniarization" feature in QTR requires that your density input curve
have a constantly increasing slope...  the instructions seem to say that
simply having increasing density from one reading to the next is
sufficient for successful linearization, but if there is a bobble in the
curve, linearization will fail.

Finally, regarding the 1160 itself, it's a little prone to clogging with
the MIS inks.  If you don't print every day, you can plan to do cleaning
cycles most every time you fire it up.  So far I haven't had any fatal
clogs.  It's a slow printer, as well, so you will need patience.

Good luck with your 1160!
DaveK



--- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "Larry" <ldmart@...> wrote:
>
> My main printer is the 2200 with OEM inks and if I understand things
> correctly printing with QTR uses the black and light black inks with
> maybe a touch of color ink for toning.
>
> I also have an Epson 1160 that I'm considering dedicating to B&W with
> MIS UT inks. The 1160 uses black and 3 colors normally and I
> understand the UT inks will be black, light black and a couple of
toners.
>
> Will I gain anything in quality by using the 1160 with UT inks over
> the 2200 with UC inks?  They both sound like 2 inks and two toners.
>
> I must keep the 2200 as is with the OEM inks so dedicating it is not
> an option.
>
> Larry
>



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

Thanks Dave,

I was researching getting the densitometer to be able to make my own
curves when I got an email from Epson this morning announcing a
wonderful new printer coming in a few weeks.  They make it sound like
the greatest advance in the history of the world.  I am curious to see
what it's B&W capabilites are going to be before going further with
the 1160 conversion.

Larry







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

>
> I use the 1160, and it makes gorgeous prints, especially when you go to
> warm-tones, with very little of the blue toner.  I think that perhaps
> the droplet sizes are a bit smaller with the 2200, but the wider
> gradations available with the black and two gray shades more than makes
> up for that (IMHO).