R3800, PFP and QTR curve creation (Newbi doubts)
2007-06-02 by Michele Berti
I am trying to profile my 3800 for BW printing under QTR but still have some doubts. This is my first attempt with QTR so I decided to follow Tom Moore user guide. Here you are what I have done so far. Please drop me a line in case I missed or misunderstood something. Using the desired media (Hahnemuhle FineArt Pearl) I printed the Ink Pettern Page from Calibration Mode and decided by eye ink limits. Let's says this is 95%. Then I printed again the Ink Pattern Page and using printFIX Pro I made two measurements. Reading nr. 1: measuring the darkest patch of Light Black ink I get a density of 1.53 which is (more or less) the same density of the 50% patch in the Black ink (the precise figure I get by interpolation is 49.5%). Reading nr. 2: measuring the darkest patch of Light Light Black ink I get a density of 0.64. To get the same density in the Black I must read patch 15% (the precise interpolated value is 16.25%). Before going to the "Curve Creator" screen I created a new directory named "3800-k3" under "c:/Program Files/QuadToneRIP/Profiles/". Then using the Curve Creator I selected New and saved the blank profile which I called 'myprpfile.qidf'. What is now the right thing to do in the "Ink Setup" tab? Here you are what I did, please tell me if I made something wrong. Leaving the 'Black Boost' field blank I put 95 as 'Default Ink Limit' and picked the option 'Not Used' for all inks except for Black, Light Black and Light Light Black. Is this ok or should I use other colors as toners? My goal is to get neutral prints minimizing as much as possible color shifts so I wonder if using just the three blacks is enought or if I should use Cyan for exmple as toner. Please help me decide. Then I start writing ink limits for the three inks I selected: I wrote 49.5 as 'Density' for LK (this number comes from reading nr.1 above), and 16.25 as 'Density' for LLK (again this number comes from reading nr. 2). Finally I clicked on 'Create Curve'. Grey Curve' tab: 6, 6, 0, 1 Toner Curve and TOner 2 Curve tabs: 10, 10, 1 Now before printing the 21step wedge and linearize I wonder if I made the right steps or if I missed something. Do I? Please help. And how can I decide about fields 'Limit' for each color I selected? Thank you all for your help.