QTR-Quadtone RIP

Hello Roy,

  I work as an assistant in a small studio of a Fine Art photographer
based in Southern Italy. After tens of years spent in a darkroom, he
decided to switch to digital printing. We discovered QTR not long ago
and started experimenting with it. We loved it from the very beginning
because of the huge control it gives to your workflow.
However, it lacks a small feature that is extremely important to us.
Infact, we only use uncoated, fine art paper for our printing, which
exhibits an extremely long drying time. As a consequence, the dot gain
is also very large. A solution would be to have a lag time between the
head passes as the OEM driver of the newest Epsons have (i.e. the
R2400) has.
I am sure it would be a nuisance for you to add such a  feature into
QTR's code (it might be a simple delay into the loop that executes the
printing).
Will you be so kind to consider such addition in the next version of
QTR? I noticed that you have added the capability of the program to
perform split tone printing upon request from someone in this
community. That sound a lot more work than what we are asking.

Thanks so much in advance. 
Cheers,

  Daniela

Daniela,
I can't help you with your question as I am not Roy, but I am curious 
as to what sort of papers you are using. I started my artistic life as 
a painter. I am interested in using uncoated papers, mostly watercolor 
papers such as Arches and Fabriano. I would like to know a bit  about 
the pitfalls of using such papers (other than what you mentioned) 
before I commit a large amount of paper and ink to the task. Would 
appreciate any thoughts. Molto grazie.

Brian

Hello Brian,


  this answer is also for Richard Smallfield who asked the same question.

As I mentioned, I am working with a Fine Art photographer who spent
more than 20 years in a darkroom printing on graded fiber paper
(Ilford Galerie). About one year ago, after he realized it was
becoming impossible to find that paper in Italy in large sizes, he
decided to abandon the darkroom and started to find an alternative
printing process. Most of our research is based on one very firm
point: The entire process has to produce a truly archival fine art print. 
This automatically excluded any inkjet paper because of the junk they
put in the coating and excluded Epson inks that contain dyes along
pigments. (He did not like the feel and the look of inkjet papers
anyway, as compared to fine art papers).

We are still in the test phase, but very close to find a solution in
terms of inks and paper used. However, inking is only a small part of
the print making. In about one month we will publish a web containing
the photo  gallery and the description of the technique. We tested
about twenty papers. Again, tests are not concluded yet. At present,
the two papers we are loving the most are Magnani Pescia Hot Press and
Magnani Pescia Cold Press (printmaking papers). A close third is
Arched Watercolor Hot Press (a watercolor paper). 

Cheers

  Daniela





--- In QuadtoneRIP@yahoogroups.com, "vassarman74" <briancorll@...> wrote:

>
> Daniela,
> I can't help you with your question as I am not Roy, but I am curious 
> as to what sort of papers you are using. I started my artistic life as 
> a painter. I am interested in using uncoated papers, mostly watercolor 
> papers such as Arches and Fabriano. I would like to know a bit  about 
> the pitfalls of using such papers (other than what you mentioned) 
> before I commit a large amount of paper and ink to the task. Would 
> appreciate any thoughts. Molto grazie.
> 
> Brian
>