QTR-Quadtone RIP

I've recently picked up a Gretag Eye One to get all my devices  
profiled and am still banging my head against the wall with color  
prints.  I made some profiles on my Epson 4000 as well as my 1280 on  
Hahnemuhle Photo Rag and my color prints are way dark.

Now here's the interesting bit:  When I print out a step tablet, not  
only is the table not neutral across the spectrum, but the tones seem  
to clip at 7% and 90%.....I've lost all my shadow detail.

Now when I print the step tablet using QTR and the same UC inks  
(which I haven't even linearized yet) it is beautiful.  The tablet is  
utterly neutral and tonal transitions are perfect from 0% to 100%.

Now I figured, someone here might be able to shed some light.  Is the  
built in rendering (would that be Photoshop's or Epson's?) that much  
inferior to QTR even with a calibrated profile?

Thanks for any input and sorry for meandering off topic....

-Chris

Sounds to me as though either your Gretag profile is off, or your print 
settings are off - what platform and OS computer?  Which printer?  What 
software to print, and what settings are you using in that software and in 
the printer driver software?

Maris

Chris Barrett wrote:

> I've recently picked up a Gretag Eye One to get all my devices
> profiled and am still banging my head against the wall with color
> prints.  I made some profiles on my Epson 4000 as well as my 1280 on
> Hahnemuhle Photo Rag and my color prints are way dark.
>
> Now here's the interesting bit:  When I print out a step tablet, not
> only is the table not neutral across the spectrum, but the tones seem
> to clip at 7% and 90%.....I've lost all my shadow detail.
>
> Now when I print the step tablet using QTR and the same UC inks
> (which I haven't even linearized yet) it is beautiful.  The tablet is
> utterly neutral and tonal transitions are perfect from 0% to 100%.
>
> Now I figured, someone here might be able to shed some light.  Is the
> built in rendering (would that be Photoshop's or Epson's?) that much
> inferior to QTR even with a calibrated profile?