Qtr & Epson driver-Overall sharpness compared.

[Davec101]

Have been doing some tests of late in relation to the sharpness of various profiles I use for platinum/palladium printing on my epson 7800 and 9800.

At the moment I am comparing 2 linearized qtr profiles, one 4 ink and one 7 ink and also a linearized profile using the Epson driver.

With Qtr I am printing at 2880, bi-directional, ordered dither algorithm. With the Epson driver it is set at 2880,ABW mode, super microweave.

Initial tests are showing that in terms of overall sharpness the Epson driver seems to be resolving more details to my eye. Anyone else found this.

 

[gmikol]

Do you have "finest detail" turned on in the Epson driver? AFAIK there is no equivalent setting in QTR.

I've never compared QTR vs. ABW in terms of sharpness/detail, so I don't have an opinion in that regarrd.

--Greg

 

[Davec101]

Do you have "finest detail" turned on in the Epson driver? AFAIK there is no equivalent setting in QTR.

I've never compared QTR vs. ABW in terms of sharpness/detail, so I don't have an opinion in that regarrd.

--Greg

Yes forgot to mention finest detail is turned on with the epson driver, according to epson this 'makes edges sharper especially text.' As it happens there is slightly more grain with ABW which suggests it may be adding some sort of sharpening, can anyone confirm this? Will turn it off and see what difference it makes when compared to the qtr profiles.

 

[gmikol]

Giving this a bump to see if Dave has any updated results, as well as to add this...

When using "finest detail" in the Epson driver, it is believed that the printer is using a 720ppi native resolution compared to 360ppi (which I assume is what QTR is driving).

So if you're source file is beyond 360ppi at the desired output size, turning on "finest detail" could provide improved sharpness and detail. But I don't think the driver is doing any actual extra sharpening when "finest detail" is enabled.

--Greg

 

[Davec101]

Giving this a bump to see if Dave has any updated results, as well as to add this...

When using "finest detail" in the Epson driver, it is believed that the printer is using a 720ppi native resolution compared to 360ppi (which I assume is what QTR is driving).

So if you're source file is beyond 360ppi at the desired output size, turning on "finest detail" could provide improved sharpness and detail. But I don't think the driver is doing any actual extra sharpening when "finest detail" is enabled.

--Greg

I have done quite a few tests since my last post and come to the conclusion that I believe there is a difference in overall sharpness when the Epson driver (finest detail) is compared to the qtr rip driver. Not knowing the actual fundamentals of exactly how each driver works its difficult for me to form an opinion why this is so. What I can say is that to my eyes when comparing two prints side by side, the overall sharpness equates to adding approximately 100% Unsharpmask (radius 1), as i bumped this up on the qtr original test image and it was similar to the unsharpened epson driver print.

Your suggestion Greg that with finest detail on the Epson driver uses its native resolution is interesting and something i have not heard before. My overall preference is still the QTR system with a 4 ink profile as it creates the smoothest tonal range of any of the negative systems and I have tried and I have more control over the driver settings, when I have trouble with venetian blinds my 7 ink profile comes into play, although this needs further tweeking as the dither pattern seems more pronounced.

Having said that when initially creating proofs for a new image I will print a negative using the Epson driver as a test until I understand exactly what is going on.

 

[gmikol]

I guess I didn't catch that you were using this for digital negatives. I've never experienced anything I'd describe as "venetian blinds". Can you describe/explain?

--Greg