Qimage

[ltrainer]

I have Quadtone RIP and Qimage but I didnt know you could use them together! How do you do that?
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LT

 

[BigPixel]

Mike,

Thanks for the thoughtful explanation. Hope my rant didn't seem too niave or judgemental, I was just speaking from my personal understanding and workflow. As we all know, there are many ways to get to the desired end, beautiful printed output.

I do understand that my HP DJ130 driver works best with files sized in even integers of 600ppi. For me, that means file resolutions of 600ppi would be optimum I suppose but hard to attain with a 6MP DSLR without gross interpolation. Probably hard with output from a Canon 1DsMkII if the print size is large. As a result I strive for image sizes of 300ppi but often find that I get very good output from my DJ130 from files sent it at 150ppi.

This was a mind bender at first. Like many, I had subscribed to the basic theory that all good printing stemmed from files sized at or near 300ppi. But in my experimentation with this printer, I found that a well edited 150ppi image, sharpened selectively with PKS for a specific output resolution, produced excellent prints on my DJ130.

I believe all three ingredients have equal value here; IE: Good Image, proper editing / workflow and the printer. I have no idea what a 23"x35" print from an Epson 7600 might look like if sent a file in a smaller integer of 720ppi.

Thanks for the info.

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BigPixel / Hawaii

 

[Mark simms]

I stick with 300 for now....but it's probably only usable when printing in MaxDPI mode...which I never do because of the speed problem. I will test 150 ppi at some point in time using "Best" mode which I believe is 1200x1200 (1200x2400 is MaxDPI, correct ?).

However, with the latest DJ130 6.06 printer driver comes a checkbox in the "Printing Preferences" for "Compatible in 16 bit mode". I was wondering if anyone has tested this from within QImage or Photoshop...i.e. to send a 16 bit RGB file instead of an 8 bit file. I know there has been tons of discussion on this in the past....many saying the difference is undetectable. But that was before this printer was "born" and the detail it brings-out might show a difference whereas with the Epson 7600, none could be seen.

 

[BigPixel]

I stick with 300 for now....but it's probably only usable when
printing in MaxDPI mode...which I never do because of the speed
problem. I will test 150 ppi at some point in time using "Best"
mode which I believe is 1200x1200 (1200x2400 is MaxDPI, correct ?).

Mark,

The reason I often send 150ppi files to the 130 is because I do not like to interpolate files up. I am not a fan of SW guessing as to what should be in the image when resampled up.

In my experience with the Fuji S2, when I convert a Fuiji RAW file to 16 bit TIF, I end up with a 69MB file that when sized to 23"x35" (no interpoplation) produces a file at 145-150ppi.

As mentioned, I also like and use PKS for sharpening. Bruce Fraser, one of the PKS authors, has stated on the PixelGenious web site that PKS works best with files at native resolution; IE: no artificial interpolation, and so I don't interpolate. That creates a file at 150ppi at 23"x35". When sharpened with PKS at that size, I get wonderful prints on the 130.

However, with the latest DJ130 6.06 printer driver comes a checkbox
in the "Printing Preferences" for "Compatible in 16 bit mode". I
was wondering if anyone has tested this from within QImage or
Photoshop...i.e. to send a 16 bit RGB file instead of an 8 bit
file. I know there has been tons of discussion on this in the
past....many saying the difference is undetectable. But that was
before this printer was "born" and the detail it brings-out might
show a difference whereas with the Epson 7600, none could be seen.

I have always sent 16 bit files to the HP driver but have no check mark for selecting such. Maybe I need to upgrade my driver. I have assumed that as I receive no caution about sending 16 bit files, that it is fine to do so.

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BigPixel / Hawaii

 

[BigPixel]

For the work I do, primarily landscape and editorial candids; I haven't noticed enough of a difference between "best" and "max dpi" in output and so usually stay with best in the settings. If I were shooting portraits in a studio or exacting product shots I might do otherwise.

Hope this helps.
--
BigPixel / Hawaii

 

[BigPixel]

Please keep in mind that I shoot for around 300ppi whenever possible. Its just that when I print large, 23.5"x35" on the 130 my rez comes down as I don't like to interpolate up. On 20x30 or smaller print sizes, I an able to maintain a resolution near 300ppi to send to the printer.
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BigPixel / Hawaii

 

[adydula]

Qimage at first was a bit intimidating, so was Adobe and I vave up on both many time, but kept going back....most if the confusion was my own ignorance of color management and printing fundamentals....

I am glad I went back and learned QIMAGE and Adobe....

I hardly ever print from Adobe.

Qimage does a wonderful job and the interface to me is really easy and straght forward...

There is an online tutorial that if you take the time to read and practice it becomes relatively simple to produce wonderful, sharp, crisp prints.

The price is great compared to other print programs out there...lifetime updgrades!!!

Thats not getting 'ripped' off!!

All the best
Alex

 

[Andi Kunar]

see thread http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=16711728
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Andi

 

[David Grabowski]

The way that I made up my mind to purchase Qimage, was to make two
prints of the very same image using Photoshop and Qimage. Once I
did that, I set Photoshop up to Jump to Qimage to do all of my
printing and I have never looked back since.

Bob

Bob ,

I'd like to hear more about this jump to Qimage. I save as my work in PS, then bring the files folder up in Qimage personally but for the random single print, how are you makng this jump ?

David

 

[Andi Kunar]

A good RIP does a
better job than the normal printer-driver, and QuadToneRIP does it
better for dark areas.

There's a lot of confusion here...as QImage cannot possibly replace
all printer drivers....it would mean that a different version of
QImage would be needed for each printer !

Feel misunderstood and want to correct this. Qimage IS NOT a RIP, my post included a comment about using Qimage with QuadToneRIP for best B&W printing results (see thread http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=16711728 ). And as my opinion about your initial post about RIPs, because I still think that RIPs can add to quality in a way that Photoshop with a normal printer driver can't.

Also, I'd like to know why everyone claims that Photoshop is to
blame for their poor print quality. Which version of PS for
instance ? Which platform (MAC vs. PC) ? Photoshop only sends the
pixels down to the printer driver....it's gotta be the latter where
the problem lies.

I did not imply in my post that I could not get the same quality out of PhotoShop, just that it is far, far more inconvenient to do so vs. Qimage. And therefore it's valuable for me.

--
Andi

 

[MarieBoyer]

Robert:

I am a newbie to this but I will weigh in if you want a newbie perspective. I LOVE Qimage because I can completely control the printing process. I bet it will pay for itself in no time in the ink I will save because I am not re-printing everything. I get every print right the first time with it.

Once you get the hang of it, you will never go back. It makes color management so easy too.

I get frustrated when I am trying to do something new with it and cannot find the right buttons. But I printed out all of Mike's instructions from his Qimage website and I keep everything in a notebook next to my desk. Very easy to find what you need.

Better though is that you can post questions here and you will get the right answer from experts here. Steve's Forum is another place. Mike actually answers your questions about "how to" do something.

Go to the basic tutorial that Mike posted on his website. Follow that. Get the basics down and you can learn all the extras with time.

Buy it and your printing will be better. Nothing better if you care about color management. That sure is the case for me, and I am a newbie who does this for hobby.

 

[APBaker]

I'm not Bob, but I hope you won't mind me chiming in:

Nested amongst Photoshop's application folders is a directory called "Jump To Graphics Editor." If you put a shortcut to QImage in that folder it will add QImage to the "Jump To" section of Photoshop's File menu.

(Using that shortcut from Photoshop to QImage will open the saved version of the current image in QImage, adding it to the print queue.)

(You could also make an action for the menu item and assign a keyboard shortcut to the action. That may make jumping quicker.)

--Drew

 

[Denis de Gannes]

If you do not do the interpolation the print driver will do it when printing. Epson Inkjets to 720 PPI and Canon to 600 PPI. So if you interpolate in PS to say 300 DPI then the file will get interpolated again by the printer driver. Qimage interpolates to the amount required by your printer when sending the files to the printer, inaddition the original file is left intact.

All adjustments are carried out by Qimage without making changes to the original file, sharpening, exposure corrections, cropping, color corrections etc. "Q" is one great program.

 

[Andi Kunar]

I think I need to comment on the sticky "I'm not interpolating" and sending 150 dpi data to the printer driver in this thread which I think is not accurate.

To my knowledge the printer driver ALWAYS needs to somewhat "interpolate" to fire the print-head nozzles. In my case (EPSON) this is done the least disturbingly like Mike Chaney pointed out at 720dpi. Because good quality upsizing in Photoshop (I prefer Genuine Fractals for this) is quite slow and I don't want to produce this huge files just for printing, I rather prefer to work in Photoshop with the original digital image-size (in my case max 12 Mpix, dependant upon crop) and use Qimage + Pyramid to go the last step and am very hapy with the results.

So my net comment is, that I think it highly likely that most people sending 150dpi "untinterpolated" images to their printer-driver in Photoshop might be able to get higher quality-prints if they print via QImage (because of better control over the final interpolation to the nozzles).

--
Andi

 

[Andi Kunar]

cool, did notknow about this, thanks.

Andi