Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I just started using Qimage Ultimate and printed out an image directly from Photoshop (Mac Snow Leopard) and per Qimage.  Used same printer driver and profile and rel col rendering with all settings for interp at max in Qimage.  The Ultimate print is less contrasty than the PS print.  Now looking at both, I think maybe the Qimage print is actually closer to the NEC calib monitor soft proof.  What is going on? As a newbie with Qimage I wonder if this is a known (?issue ?advantage) feature.  It does mean that I can't use Q for fine art repro prints for customers that were proofed to them by printing from PS directly.  J Vee

Qimage Ultimate will print identical color compared to PhotoShop as long as all the driver settings and profiles are identical.  Now, you have an extra "complication" in that you are using a Mac.  Have you tried printing with identical settings from PhotoShop on a PC compared to Qimage on a PC?  If you are printing from PhotoShop running under Mac OSX versus Qimage printing through the Windows driver, you're extra complication in the equation is that your printer drivers are not the same.  I can't help you with Mac idiosyncrasies as we don't support the Mac OS.  I can only help you with Qimage and it's internal functionality.  What I can tell you is that the Window version of PhotoShop will print identical color to Qimage Ultimate if all driver/program settings are identical.  Only difference will be increased detail/sharpness on the Qimage Ultimate print.  If you do see a difference comparing Windows-PhotoShop to Windows-Qimage Ultimate, you have a corrupted printer ICC profile: PhotoShop and Qimage Ultimate often handle "bad" profiles differently.  That's all the info I have: hope some of that helps.

Mike

I'm not sure if this is pertinent:  I've been editing raw and tiff images in Mac Snow Leopard with Photoshop CS3.  Then the precisely cropped/sized final image is "jumpdrived" into my Win-XP & QU .... With incredible fidelity!   Printing with Epson 2400, 3800 & 7880.  On occasion I need a tiny nudge of brightness or B-Y or G-M, in QU to arrive at a perfect match.  As a long time professional photographer/Mac/PS & Epson user and a relative newcomer to QU, I am greatly relieved by the compatibility & QU performance.  Also, the page layout (precise image positioning) and "Job" saves of QU are lifesavers: The Epson user interfaces/dialogues are huge ink & paper wasters.  However, I'd happily part with those printers....only at the point of a gun!    Now that's a comment to arouse the Ford vs. Chevy crowd.....and that issue is certain to draw some posts.

Peace,
Gordo