QTR-Quadtone RIP

Don't know the answer to your question as to why but---It's my
understanding that the gray-lab.icc is based on a 2.2 workspace. I
found the same problem you did. So, I tried changing to gray 1.8 and
recalibrating my monitor. That worked to give me a better onscreen
image in the shadows. I also found that there was really no need to
use gray-lab at all then. I also discovered in using the Gray Matt icc
for soft proofing, by accident, that the print and screen matched
whether or not I used the Gray matt conversion before printing. Since
that time, I use gray1.8 as the workspace,softproof with Gray Matt icc
 and still do convert to it before printing (or more recently, with
custom icc's via Create-icc program). I actually could get by with
just editing in gray1.8 and printing but I fear that I might be
missing some subtle refinements or something. I have experimented with
doing this and can see no difference visually. You can test this by
editing an image in 1.8 and, when you have it as you wish, use the
Gray Matt.icc to softproof and switch back and forth. You can easily
tell if the image changes when you do that. If it doesn't you are home
free. Use BPC but not paper white when doing this. It is true that the
2.2 workspace does compress the shadow appearance somewhat.So does
Adobe98 and any other 2.2 based workspace.

Hope this is of some use to you.

Regards
Duane




--- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "prof_mgt551" <prof_mgt551@...> wrote:
>
> Tom Moore pointed out something interesting in an earlier post: when
> converting to Roy Harrington's provided gray-lab.icc profile to use as
> a working space, the shadow end of the scale blocks up (using the B&W
> test image provided at the Northlight Images website). In the readme
> file provided in the profile folder, it says using this as the working
> space "spaces the grayscale values linearly with respect Lab or
> Luminosity". It is then suggested to convert to either Gray Matte
> Paper or Gray Photo Paper when printing. This conversion also blocks
> up the deep shadows.
> 
> Since Roy is the expert and source of knowledge when doing B&W
> printing, I must not understand something - or many things :)  It
> seems that there is no value in using spaces that block up shadow
> detail in an image. So why are these icc profiles provided in the QTR
> installation? What is the recomended working space for adjusting
> images in Photoshop prior to making prints using QTR?
> 
> I am using a Windows XP computer and an Epson 2200 with the regular UC
> inks. So far I have been printing on Epson Enhanced Matte paper and
> Ilford Smooth Pearl.
> 
> Thanks for any observations,
> 
> Ken
>