Printing images from Photoshop =>CS4

When Photoshop updated CS4, they removed the “No Color Management” option from the Print dialogue. We assumed that printing instead with “Printer Manages Color” would produce the same effect because this is how QTR instructs it’s MacOS users to use QTR. By the way, this only affects MacOS users of QTR. The Windows version is a stand-alone app. Most Mac users print to QTR through the MacOS system as a Print option from Photoshop – though they can print from other apps as well. Our bad! We did not verify. From time to time, we have received tech enquiries from Mac...Read more

Calibration! Do I need it?

Take a look at the following graphic to find your calibration score. What is the lowest number that you can just barely see? 1 – 9       Fantastic! Great job! You’re calibrated to print. 10 – 15     Good job – your calibration allows you to see some shadow detail, not all. 16 – 19    Better than most but you’re missing the very dark shadow details you are capable of adjusting if you could see them. 20-30    Not so good I am afraid… 31+        Poor. You’re missing the entire range of shadow detail which is what allows Piezography...Read more

A Calibration Primer

Introduction Piezography K7 is intended as a synergistic relationship between seven shades of carbon black ink and a special Piezography curve for the QuadTone RIP (QTR) software. The Piezography designed curve has the uncanny ability to map the entire 8-bit grayscale space (256 gray levels) onto a media. Piezography provided many of these media curves at no charge as part of the installation of (QTR) software. Additional curves are available by purchasing custom profiling services from Piezography. Alternatively, a user can perfect their printer’s linearization by using this premium...Read more

Pre-Visualization Strategies for Piezography part 3

So if a photographer can not calibrate their display to print, or refuses to… why would a photographer refuse to calibrate to print? The reason I hear the most, is that they do not like the look of the display. The next reason is that they like their image better when its super contrasty. So what happens is that they see fantastic blacks and then complain that the resultant Piezography prints are “too light”. Yet Piezography is capable of making fantastic blacks. In fact, the best strength of Piezography is its ability to render endless detail in the shadows. Some...Read more

Pre-Visualization Strategies for Piezography part 2

Lets take a look at what happens when a display is calibrated too bright. Many photographer like to look at their images as if they were looking at them on a light box. They often calibrate so that the dark point is about 0 L and the white point is about 100 L. In fact, a lot of well-meaning experts will actually convince them to do so. But most well-meaning experts are not printmakers and do not regularly calibrate their displays to match prints. Experts in printing convince photographers to calibrate their displays for print when printing, and calibrate their displays for other purposes...Read more

Pre-Visualization Strategies for Piezography intro

Standard K7 profiles are made to differentiate between 256 gray levels from RGB value 0 (black) to RGB value 255 (white). Therefore, displays should be calibrated to print specs of an approximate contrast ratio of 275%, with black point near .34 cd/m2 and a white point near 90 cd/m2. These Luminance values are not very dark, nor very bright and are intended to make the display imitate ink on paper. In fact, the appearance of a properly calibrated display can be quite unusual when the user realizes that their uncalibrated display has a native contrast ratio often as bright as 875%. And...Read more

The K7 standard and monitor display systems

The K7 standard Piezography K7 profiles when used with K7 inks produce 255 separate shades of gray (256 including white). The Piezography profiles are actually curve sets that I make for the QuadTone RIP software. You can think of these gray levels as L (luminosity) values with L value 0 representing black and L value 255 representing paper white. Piezography is the only system which can print such a wide tonal latitude. Other systems can print darker or print whiter, but they can not differentiate detail in the shadows and highlight that Piezography K7 (K6) can. Because darkroom silver paper...Read more