Hi Alistair,
I have not bothered to do the test comparisons as your examples say it all and I assume if I did the tests I would get the same results, after all there is plenty anecdotal evidence via posts on google saying Qimage is better than LR3 latest version at print copies,
It's also designed to make sizing and placement of prints on paper easy quite apart from the quality aspects. Features like having the ability to a save & re-call print set-ups, logging of jobs, all make it a great program. You can easily print profiling targets too, something that LR cannot do because colour management cannot be turned off apparently.
my question I have is concerning the default sharpening applied and how to view the difference before printing if I increase it?
I cannot see a visible difference in the soft proof so am I missing something?
The short answer is that you do have to make a print. Soft proofing is for checking the colours and tones of a printer profile, not print sharpening.
Qimage print sharpening is "smart" in that it takes account of the print size and other factors so that once set to your taste, you would rarely have to change it.
The idea is that you get your print, in terms of sharpness to look like the image on your monitor. Open the Edit Preference dialogue for Printing Preferences and click the blue Help button and you'll see a more detailed explanation.
I suggest you start with the default level (asterisk on the slider) and see what you get, it wont be far out.
A point to remember, never re-size (interpolate) an image in another program, let Qimage do it automatically with its superior algorithms.
also given the setup below once I pay which version should be best for me? I think the ultimate is over the top for me as i don't need raw support?
You need to bear in mind that all future enhancements to Qimage will be done with Qimage Ultimate, printing, editing and raw. The other versions will have minimum maintenance - see the web site for the policy.
There are features in QU which are unique and benefical, such as image Tone Targeted Sharpening and you may actually find that QU raw processing is very good - don't be put off by it's relatively interface, that too is a "smart" feature. Also it has the ability to use camera specific icc profiles to give more accurate colour so printing directly from a raw file minimises the number of colour space conversion in the process. On the printing side, there are extra features compared to some other versions.
Of course, the cost differences between the versions are minimal and the price of QU is low so why not go for it?
If you have any more queries, please ask, there are plenty of knowledgeable people here who can help in addition the Mike who is the developer of Qimage.
Terry
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