Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

 In an earlier threat about more or less the same subject, Ed_K wonders "Why add an additional (unnecessary) element like LR in the process. It can't help in any way; just adds another potential point of failure In my reaction to his remark, which went unanswered, I explained that I use LR for archiving and post processing and that to me, it seems logical to print from LR too. However I purchased QI pro because I read very positive opinions about QI and in using it concluded that it offers very good print results.
I do not quite understand why Ed is kind of negative about LR? Perhaps because QI delivers better printing conditions than LR, to which I agree. I now plan to continue archiving my images and pp these in LR. However I will thereafter use QI for printing. I would like to have your advise of how to best integrate LR and QI?
I see the following options: 1) export all images after pp in LR and ready for printing, to a temporary file and thenuse this file in QI for printing. After finishing printing, delete the images from temporary file or option 2) go in LR to "Photo - Edit in - Edit in Qimage.exe - Edit copy with LR Adjustments" This will bring the image in QI ready for printing. After printing delete the image (the pp copy remains available in LR)
Perhaps there are other and better ways of integrating printing in QI with LR?
Harry

No idea, why somebody considers Lightroom as an unneccessary element and another potential point of failure.

I use Lightroom for image management, image browsing, and some image editing raw files. Because I think the Qimage print engine does a far better job than I use Qimage for printing and start in from Lightroom as an external editor like you. If you do not any edits in Lightroom to the TIFF file Lightroom generates and sends to Qimage, you can delete it after printing the file, because you can always restore it, since the only image editing parameters are stored in your Lightroom catalog (or in accompanying xmp files). If you do alter the TIFF files as well, you may need to keep them. I would not go the export route. Just call Qimage on the image you select for printing and start Qimage as an external editor.

Export would only be better, if you want to print several images at the same time (i.e. several images on one page).

Both methods should not have any influence on the quality of your print.

Kind regards

Thomas

I did not mean to imply that LR - or any other post-process/pre-print software/steps - were unnecessary or inappropriate. Poor wording on my part. I was simply trying to state that once one's image editing was complete and the resulting jpeg/tiff/whatever file was finished that (IMO) should be the end of the non-QI software's role in terms of printing.

To the extent that LR (or whatever) might be used to size/resize up or down, sharpen, etc. the LR produced tiff/jpeg as a prelude to printing whenever QI is more than capable of performing those steps is what I was trying to question. Possibly even worse is to involve LR/et.al. in those pre-print steps to further modify the final tiff/jpeg & then have QI possibly do the same - a 2nd time - is to lose control of what's happening in creating a print.

I see no problem at all in having LR open QI and pass it a file to print - as long as in the process LR isn't used to resize, upsize, interpolate, sharpen, etc. in preparation for QI to do its job. For those who feel differently, freedom of choice is a wonderful thing and I'm all for it. Whatever floats our individual boats....

For the record my workflow is -
0. Nikon D-SLR's (2-D300's, IR converted D70, Panasonic LUMIX FZ28 for "walk-around"). Shoot 100% RAW and 99.99% with tripod. Epson 3800.
1. Download using Downloader Pro (sorry. Mike. If it ain't broke, don't fix it applies here.)
2. DAM using IMatch.
3. RAW processing using Nikon Capture NX2 (with Nik Color Efex Pro 3 plug-in)
4. If printing - call to QI via IMatch (or simply start QI directly and open templates & image files without IMatch - depends on what I'm doing at the time) - which does nothing more than open QI and tell it what image file to use - no up/down sizing, pre-print sharpening, etc. because I want QI to do that exclusively

If folks "using LR & QI" are doing similar to my step 4 then I apologize for my poor choice of words. However, if you're using your image processing software to do those same print related adjustments that QI is capable of doing then I stand by my "point of failure" comment.

Cheers,

Ed K.
http://www.pbase.com/ed_k

Thomas and Ed: Thank you both for taking the time to react to my request for info. Everything is now quite clear to me and I will continue using LR and then printing using QI.
Harry

Ed,

After your clarification, I fully agree with you, we use the same type of workflow.
I do input sharpening (ref. to Bruce Fraser) with Lightroom or LightZone and leave the rest for printing to Qimage. Even with this slight sharpening, I find the print results of Qimage very good (Epson Stylus Pro 3800) and preferable to Lightroom.

(However, from a workflow point of you, it would be better if Lightroom was on par with Qimage in terms of printing. That would make the intermediate TIFFs files superfluous).

Muizen, if you make special adjustments for individual prints in Lightroom (i.e. a black & white version or different crops) you should consider the virtual copy function. Maybe you already knew of it. This would not avoid the TIFFs, but your special edits are kept separately.

Another option is to tailor your input sharpening for your printing needs and personal taste, create a Lightroom preset, and apply this to a virtual copy for printing.

Kind regards

Thomas

Fred: Thank you for your suggestions which I applied. I still get this message saying that I did not exit QI correctly. However it is not a problem and I can live with it! Harry

I have a similar work flow to tgutgu and ed_k.  My only difference is that after I discovered QI my sharpening in prior workflow became very limited.  And, absolutely no resizing if it is going to QI.