Ross,
The curves are used for toning (warm print tone vs cool print tone)
They apply equally throughout tonal (highlights and shadow) range.
The sliders allow you to blend different % of warm and cool to create
a tone to your liking.
I am using UT2 inks so I don't know alot about some of the other
questions.
I would suggets setting up a warm curve and a cool curve and blend
them at different % (ie 50-50, 75,25, 100-0) and print a series of
step wedges. You can quickly get the feel for it on 1 shhet of
paper.
You might try a google seach for tutorials on QTR. The only one I
know of is Tom Moore's for curve creation. DBWTP is by far the best
source of information, but as you said, it is very difficult to
navigate the search engine.
Looking in old files I have saved, it appears QTR for windows came
out in the beginning or middle of August 2004. There was a lot of
traffic about basic issues during that time frame. If you can
navigate back to that time, you might get a start on some answers.
Hope this helps and feel free to ask more questions.
Peter
--- In QuadtoneRIP@..., "Ross" <ross_2u@y...> wrote:
Greeting Fellow Rippers,
I just discovered that there was a Windows version of QTR a few
days
ago. I have downloaded it and have been churning out test prints.
Here is my config:
OS: Windows
Printer: Epson 2200
Inks: UC with Photo Black
Paper: Epson Prem. Luster, Kirkland Pro. glossy
QTR: 2.2.1 standalone with QTRgui
Current goal: To print Neutral BW prints on a variety of papers.
Like others I often print color on this printer, as well so I am not
interested in switching to dedicated BW inks at this time.
I am currently trying to understand Curves. I have read through the
QTRgui help, but I am still pretty ignorant. Here is a list of my
current questions:
1. There are two curves used in printing. What is the difference
between the two? Is one applied to highlights and the other to
shadows, or are they just blended uniformly?
2. The "blend percentage: is described as:
"The blend percentage shows the amount of the left
hand tone curve to be used."
??? What does this mean precisely? Since there is a slider that
moves from the left to the right curve, I assume that this adjusts
the
"balance" between the left curve and the right curve. Again is this
the point at which one curve takes over or is it an overall blending
across all parts of the image?
3. There appears to be only one neutral curve "UC-NoBlack-neutral".
All other curves appear to have some form of toning. I'm guessing
that this curve can be used with all papers? I have used this
preset
for both the left and right curves for almost all of my printing so
far. I this the correct way to get neutral prints? Are there other
options I should investigate?
4. The curve names appear to be some kind of encoding of the ink,
paper, and tone. Is there any way to get a full decoding of the
curve
name?
5. Are there any docs or webpages I should be reading to bring me up
to speed? Please don't suggest that I trudge through the thousands
of
posts in DBWTP.
Thanks in advance for your help. I am excited about the
possiblities
QTR offers! Once I have done a fairly thorough testing of glossy
and
luster papers I will switch over to matte ink and papers for
testing.
-Ross
