Digital BW, The Print

Thanks, Tyler, for the reply. No, my monitor is not hardware 
calibrated. When I say that the Epson output matches better, I mean 
that at 100% viewing in PS -- very large, with lots of detail -- the 
Epson print looks the same in contrast in the darker tones whereas 
the QTR has a somewhat gray-veiled look to it. I'm not softproofing. 
Anyway, your suggestions concerning softproofing make sense. I'll try 
to work up a custom dot gain curve and see where that gets me. It 
makes sense what you say: output, tonally, between the two systems 
should be capable of being nearly equal.

Chris Hargens

 --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Tyler Boley" 
<tyler@t...> wrote:
> My suspicion would be that QTR's output is more linear than the 
Epson
> driver, particularly if your setup was hardware linearized.
> Therefore, the fact that you prefer that particular file through the
> Epson driver only means it hasn't been optimized for QTR.
> Softproofing would help you, either a custom dot gain curve made by
> eye, or a real icc softproof profile of QTR output. That would help
> you get where you want faster, by adjusting your files apropriate to
> the more linear output. The fact that one arbitrarily matches your
> monitor better than the other is not conclusive. Is your monitor
> hardware calibrated? When you say it matches better, are you using
> some sort of softproof of the Epson output to compare?
> You see the complications here.
> The bottom line is that you should be able to tonaly come nearly
> indistinguishable between output systems one way or another.
> The dmax difference is another issue, but sometimes a conrastier 
print
> only appears to have higher dmax, and I believe the gimp drivers 
allow
> as much ink load and dot size as the Epson driver, Roy could speak 
to
> that.
> Tyler
> 
> 
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Chris Hargens"
> <chargens@s...> wrote:
> > Yesterday I printed an image on my 2200 with QTR (XP) and with 
> > Ultrachromes using the Epson driver. As usual, the Epson print 
> > exhibited some slight metamerism and the QTR image did not. What 
I 
> > noticed in favor of the Epson print, however, is that it had a 
> > somewhat darker black and it more faithfully rendered the 
contrast of 
> > the 85%-100% range of the image vis-a-vis what I see on the 
monitor. 
> > The QTR print went somewhat flat in this range. I've printed a 
step 
> > wedge with QTR -- it's smooth and seems to capture the whole 
range 
> > from black to white. So now I'm wondering what I can do to 
increase 
> > contrast in the darker range and deepen the black. Perhaps a 
change 
> > in dot gain or an adjustment curve applied right before printing? 
Has 
> > anyone had similar experiences?
> > 
> > Chris Hargens