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Author Topic: How can QImage help me?  (Read 7634 times)
tliu10
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« on: December 29, 2011, 05:01:26 PM »

Hi,

I'm a new member to the Forum.  I'm trying to find out how QImage can help me to get better prints from commercial labs.

1. I do NOT own photo printer or QImage.  I use commercial labs to print enlargements - 16x20, 20x30, 24x36, 12x36, etc.
2. I use CaptureNX2, PS/CS5, PTGui, Photomatix, etc. for digital processing and ColorMunki for monitor calibration.
3. I do "soft-proof" (not the best option!) of lab-printer and my-monitor, if it's available from the commercial lab.

The bottomline: I can never be sure of the print results until I see the final prints (that's probably true in all cases.  But it would be nice to have some degree of confidence of the print quality during the image processing stage)

Question:  In my scenario, how can QImage help me to get more consistent and predictable prints?

Thanks for any suggestions
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vsteffel
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« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2011, 05:13:58 PM »

Let me try.  I don't own a printer.  I take my prints out.
I have found that Qimage has excellent sharpening algorithyms.
It also has an excellent algorithym for increasing the pixel size of a photo.
I have taken 3 MP photos produced by my old Fuji s602z and enlarged them to 16 x 20 inches and some larger.  Colleagues who have a very good sense of image quality enjoyed them very much.  They were not saying this to please me; they got me to set up a gallery exhibition.

While I have been photographing for a long time, I am a novice when it comes to digital printing.

Others will come in and explain this much better than I can.

Best,

Vlady
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Terry-M
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« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2011, 05:20:20 PM »

Hi,
As a start, look at this "learn by example" from the on-line help file.
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u/help/lbe.htm#25a

This should give you some clues. You do need some information from your lab as to the resolution they require, the image profile preferred. Sometimes labs will supply a printer profile for you to convert to and embed in the image. It would be helpful to know what printer they use because to old "300ppi" is often not the best.

Can you be more specific about the things that do not come up to your expectation, colour, too bright/dark, definition etc?

Terry
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tliu10
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« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2011, 06:44:47 PM »

> Terry asked "Can you be more specific about the things that do not come up to your expectation..."

The differences in Brightness and Vibrance between print and screen image - the print is always darker and duller...hence the definition is less clear.  The image in print does not stand-out as it appears on screen.
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Terry-M
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« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2011, 07:39:54 PM »

Quote
The image in print does not stand-out as it appears on screen
That will always be the case to some extent because the screen is transmitted light whereas the print reflected light. Also, a print will normally has a smaller colour gamut than a monitor screen. Matt papers will be worse that gloss types.
Quote
the print is always darker and duller
This can happen when you print yourself; it's usually because the monitor is set too bright. Do you set the luminance value when calibrating the monitor? The "normal" value for a flat screen type is 120CD/sq M. Another approach is to set the brightness to look like a print but it may take several tests to get it right.
Terry
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vsteffel
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« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2011, 09:59:43 PM »

I should add to my message above that when I have the images printed, I have to change the color from RGB to CMYK because the setup is for their HP Designjet.
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