QTR-Quadtone RIP

I want to use newer papers (the Harmon Gloss and possibly the Hahnemuhle fine art pearl) 
with my Epson 4800.  Looking at some of the other curves available for the printers people 
are profiling the Harmon paper for versus the 4800 it looks like there are considerable 
differences so I doubt I'll be able to start with someone's curves for another printer and get 
close enough by eye.  It seems like maybe there aren't so many people out there using the 
4800/7800/9800 with QTR so the set of available curves is not as large as for a lot of other 
printers.

I don't own a reflection densitometer.  Browsing around eBay I only see a few affordable 
choices -- the X-Rite DTP32 or DTP34, or there are some X-Rite 404s around but those are 
RGB models; I don't know how that will work.  It looks like at least the DTP34 requires 
software to get any readout at all since it's USB connected and seems to have no display.

What can I use to make curves that's cheap and will give me better quality than my scanner?

Thanks!

Thor

Hi Thor,

The 3800 printer is pretty similar to the 4800.  It has quite a few
profiles for
different papers -- Silver Rag ought to be pretty close.  The main
difference in the
printers will be the ink limits.  You can test this out with the Ink
Limit Adj while printing.

So I'd copy over these profiles are starting points.  I'm not really
familar with those
densitometers but they are pretty likely to work.  The difference will be how
manually you need to enter the measurements.  But once you have that, adjusting
the ink limits and re-linearizing is probably all you need to do.

Roy

On 10/23/07, t_j_l_s <tls@...> wrote:
>
> I want to use newer papers (the Harmon Gloss and possibly the Hahnemuhle fine art pearl)
> with my Epson 4800.  Looking at some of the other curves available for the printers people
> are profiling the Harmon paper for versus the 4800 it looks like there are considerable
> differences so I doubt I'll be able to start with someone's curves for another printer and get
> close enough by eye.  It seems like maybe there aren't so many people out there using the
> 4800/7800/9800 with QTR so the set of available curves is not as large as for a lot of other
> printers.
>
> I don't own a reflection densitometer.  Browsing around eBay I only see a few affordable
> choices -- the X-Rite DTP32 or DTP34, or there are some X-Rite 404s around but those are
> RGB models; I don't know how that will work.  It looks like at least the DTP34 requires
> software to get any readout at all since it's USB connected and seems to have no display.
>
> What can I use to make curves that's cheap and will give me better quality than my scanner?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Thor
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

Hi Thor. I think the DTP32 is a strip reading densitometer. You can
use the Xrite Toolcrib program to take readings to a text file I
believe. It's a free download from Xrite. It should work very well.

Regards
Duane

--- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "t_j_l_s" <tls@...> wrote:
> 
> I don't own a reflection densitometer.  Browsing around eBay I only
see a few affordable 
> choices -- the X-Rite DTP32 or DTP34, or there are some X-Rite 404s
around but those are 
> RGB models; I don't know how that will work.  It looks like at least
the DTP34 requires 
> software to get any readout at all since it's USB connected and
seems to have no display.
> 
> What can I use to make curves that's cheap and will give me better
quality than my scanner?

> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Thor
>

--- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "Roy Harrington" <roy@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Thor,
> 
> The 3800 printer is pretty similar to the 4800.  It has quite a few
> profiles for
> different papers -- Silver Rag ought to be pretty close.  The main
> difference in the
> printers will be the ink limits.  You can test this out with the Ink
> Limit Adj while printing.

I thought that was probably the case, but then I looked at some of the profiles, and where 
there are profiles for the same papers, they don't seem very similar to me.  Am I missing 
something?

Also, I thought that -- supposedly -- the 4800, 7800, 9800 were factory calibrated so 
that for color work, at least, all should profile the same, but that the 3800 was not part of 
this product family.  I'd expect this to cause differences -- but it's entirely possible I 
misunderstand, again!

--- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "t_j_l_s" <tls@...> wrote:
>
>...
> I don't own a reflection densitometer.  Browsing around eBay I only
see a few affordable 
> choices -- the X-Rite DTP32 or DTP34, or there are some X-Rite 404s
around but those are 
> RGB models; I don't know how that will work.  It looks like at least
the DTP34 requires 
> software to get any readout at all since it's USB connected and
seems to have no display.
> 
> What can I use to make curves that's cheap and will give me better
quality than my scanner?
...

I have an XRite 810, which is a reflection/transmission colour
densitometer, which I got from eB** recently, for a reasonable price.
This one is good for QTR curves.

Steve