QTR-Quadtone RIP

I am getting an Epson 3000 up and running. I purchased the Piezotone
iQuad solution, and will shortly be profiling papers. My question is
this: is there a meaningful workflow for using the Piezotone inks with
Quadtone RIP?

James Pelton

>is there a meaningful workflow for using the Piezotone inks with
> Quadtone RIP?

I have used the 3000 with the Cone plugin; with Cone's PiezographyBW ICC which I believe is 
similar to iQuad just not tailored to one's individual printer; and with QTR. I get far and away 
the best results with the old plugin...ICC and QTR have loss of detail and posterization in the 
high highlites, and obvious dithering in midtones. (This is looking closely with a critical 
eye...a civilian would probably have a hard time seeing it with 2 prints side by side.)  I happily 
made many prints over a few months with QTR until one day I when starting to feel uneasy 
about highlight detail and made a comparison print with an 1160 using plugin. Ouch. At first 
I thought I'd have to ditch the 3000 but then made a print of the same image on the 3000 
using the plugin...it was equal to that from the 1160.

I know this isn't what you want to hear. I think the problem is that ICC and QTR use the 
Epson driver, and the mono-sized dots of the 3000 give a dithering pattern that's just too 
coarse. I think the plugin functions as a RIP. The good news is that the plugin works 
extremely well and isn't too expensive. Still available as R9 I believe. --John Wilton