Digital BW, The Print

Since I have upgraded to the new QTR/QTRGui for Windows, my prints 
are too dark. They look great in Photoshop but the whites are just 
not white in the prints and the overall image is too dark. I am 
printing on Epson Enhanced Matte using a 60/40 mix of the Warm/Cool 
curves. I use an Epson 2200 with UltraChrome inks. What do I need to 
do to correct this?

Thanks!

John L

Move the Ink Limit Adjustment and/or Gamma Adjustment sliders.


Greg

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Money is just a tool.
Happiness is pedaling + 25 mph on a smooth road.

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--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, johnlill2@y... 
wrote:
> 
> Since I have upgraded to the new QTR/QTRGui for Windows, my prints 
> are too dark. They look great in Photoshop but the whites are just 
> not white in the prints and the overall image is too dark. I am 
> printing on Epson Enhanced Matte using a 60/40 mix of the 
Warm/Cool 
> curves. I use an Epson 2200 with UltraChrome inks. What do I need 
to 

> do to correct this?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> John L

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "spineasy" <spineasy@y...> wrote:
> 
> Move the Ink Limit Adjustment and/or Gamma Adjustment sliders.

Neither of which will affect the whites....

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, johnlill2@y... wrote:
> 
> Since I have upgraded to the new QTR/QTRGui for Windows, my prints 
> are too dark.

Did they look OK if you printed with the old QTR/QTRgui? That's important. If they did, the thing you need to do is run QTRCleanout.exe (from the QTRgui site) then reinstall. Cures all sorts of weird problems.

If this is your first experience with QTR, read on...

> They look great in Photoshop but the whites are just 
> not white in the prints and the overall image is too dark. I am 
> printing on Epson Enhanced Matte using a 60/40 mix of the Warm/Cool 
> curves. I use an Epson 2200 with UltraChrome inks. What do I need to 
> do to correct this?

Give up PhotoShop?

OK, on to a more serious solution.

If QTR is functioning alright, it prints pretty well. It sounds more like you've got PhotoShop and/or your monitor calibrated so PhotoShop is making things brighter than they really are.

First, are you printing monochrome TIF files, or are the TIFs still color, just desaturated or turned into monochrome with the channel mixer? The TIFs really should be monochrome for QTR to work properly.

Open one of the problem images in PhotoShop and select image->mode. Make sure it's "grayscale" not "RGB Color".

Now, PhotoShop uses ICC profiles when displaying an image, QTR does not use the profile embedded in the TIFF when printing the image. So a really weird profile will cause problems. When you convert the image to grayscale, the profile will probably be switched to "Dot Gain 20%". This is pretty much compatible with QTR, i.e. an image that displays well in PhotoShop with "Dot Gain 20%" will look OK after QTR strips the profile and does its thing. If you've got some other profile set, like "Dot Gain 40%" or "Gray Gamma 2.2" you'll have weird tones. This is why you can't have the image in color RGB mode, because even inf the image looks monochrome, the color profiles like "Adobe RGB" or "sRGB" profiles won't match up to QTR at all.

Now, it's possible you simply have your monitor brightness or contrast turned up to high. In the QuadToneRIP directory is a file called "21step.tif". Open it in PhotoShop, the same way you open the problem images. Assign a working space of "Dot Gain 20%" if the option appears. You should be able to see each of the 21 steps as a separate, distinct color. Only the 0% step should be white. The 5% step should definitely be a light gray, distinguishable from the 0% step. The 95% step should be a charcole gray, different from the 100% step, which is the only one that should be black. (The 95% step isn't numbered, but it's the one between 100% and 90%, in case you can't see it).

Hope one of these suggestions helps...

Thanks for responding! My answers are below...

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "koloshor" 
<wiz@n...> wrote:
> 
> 
> Did they look OK if you printed with the old QTR/QTRgui? That's 
important. If they did, the thing you need to do is run 
QTRCleanout.exe (from the QTRgui site) then reinstall. Cures all 
sorts of weird problems.

Yes they did. I have run the QTRCleanout (several times!) while 
trying to get the new version to work.
 
> If this is your first experience with QTR, read on...
> 
> 
> If QTR is functioning alright, it prints pretty well. It sounds 
more like you've got PhotoShop and/or your monitor calibrated so 
PhotoShop is making things brighter than they really are.
> 

My monitor is calibrated w/ a Colorvision Spyder. I get excellent 
matching color when printing using color profiles created w/ Profile 
Prism so my monitor is not the issue.

> First, are you printing monochrome TIF files, or are the TIFs 
still color, just desaturated or turned into monochrome with the 
channel mixer? The TIFs really should be monochrome for QTR to work 
properly.

Yes. I am printing 8-bit grayscale tiffs.
> 
> Open one of the problem images in PhotoShop and select image-
>mode. Make sure it's "grayscale" not "RGB Color".
> 
> Now, PhotoShop uses ICC profiles when displaying an image, QTR 
does not use the profile embedded in the TIFF when printing the 
image. So a really weird profile will cause problems. When you 
convert the image to grayscale, the profile will probably be 
switched to "Dot Gain 20%". This is pretty much compatible with QTR, 
i.e. an image that displays well in PhotoShop with "Dot Gain 20%" 
will look OK after QTR strips the profile and does its thing. If 
you've got some other profile set, like "Dot Gain 40%" or "Gray 
Gamma 2.2" you'll have weird tones. This is why you can't have the 
image in color RGB mode, because even inf the image looks 
monochrome, the color profiles like "Adobe RGB" or "sRGB" profiles 
won't match up to QTR at all.

The images have the profile "Dot Gain 20%" assigned.
> 
> Now, it's possible you simply have your monitor brightness or 
contrast turned up to high. In the QuadToneRIP directory is a file 
called "21step.tif". Open it in PhotoShop, the same way you open the 
problem images. Assign a working space of "Dot Gain 20%" if the 
option appears. You should be able to see each of the 21 steps as a 
separate, distinct color. Only the 0% step should be white. The 5% 
step should definitely be a light gray, distinguishable from the 0% 
step. The 95% step should be a charcole gray, different from the 
100% step, which is the only one that should be black. (The 95% step 
isn't numbered, but it's the one between 100% and 90%, in case you 
can't see it).
> 

I don't have that file in my QTR directory but as I said, my monitor 
is calibrated & profiled and I get an excellent color match.
> Hope one of these suggestions helps...

Thanks again - I do appreciate your taking the time to help! I won't 
give up. I'm sure there's an answer somewhere.