Digital BW, The Print

I have been trying to develop a work flow for the above hardware using Windows 7 and CS3.  As per Paul Roark's excellent publications I have concentrated first printing through Photoshop and the Epson printer interface rather than using QTR.  I have prepared an icc file for Epson Archival Matt paper using QTRICC-RGB and the Gray Scale 21 step file.  My actual photo files originate either as Camera Raw or RGB tiff files from VueScan.

Questions:

 When do you use QTRICC-RGB and when do you use QTRICC?  Why?

 If I'm using Photoshop/Epson to print why not use RGB file rather than convert to a Gray Scale file?  Won't I have more information in the RGB file?  Will I get better prints?  If not why not?

Thanks one and all for your kind help.

rfsteckmeyer <steckmeyer@...> wrote:

> **
>
>
> ... using Windows 7 and CS3. ...printing through Photoshop and the Epson
> printer interface ... I have prepared an icc file for Epson Archival Matt
> paper using QTRICC-RGB and the Gray Scale 21 step file.
>
My actual photo files originate either as Camera Raw or RGB tiff files from
> VueScan.
>
Questions:
>
> When do you use QTRICC-RGB and when do you use QTRICC? Why?
>
I never use Create-ICC any more.  Create ICC-RGB works fine even when there
is no curve being embedded.  The RGB version is compatible with more
applications.  By having only the RGB version on my desktop, I don't make
the mistake of using the wrong one.

That said, if you are not embedding a PS curve in the ICC and you are using
Photoshop for printing, the older Create ICC will work fine.



> If I'm using Photoshop/Epson to print why not use RGB file rather than
> convert to a Gray Scale file? Won't I have more information in the RGB
> file? Will I get better prints? If not why not?
>
The files will be converted to grayscale by the ICC.   So, there is do
printing advantage to the RGB files.  No more information gets into the
ICC, as I understand the process.  A 16 bit grayscale file takes up less
space than a 48 bit RGB file.  Also, if there is color in the RGB file,
you'll want to handle the conversion process yourself for creative control.

 Paul
www.PaulRoark.com


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