Just want to give Qimage some love

[evil4blue]

I was printing out some photos last night and as I was proofing some of my 13" x 19" prints, one word came to mind, "WOW!" (This is with the lowly D70 6mp Camera)

After I purchased my Epson R1800, I printed off some test images through Photoshop CS2. The quality was okay, but I thought I could do better. I went through a period of tweaking, profiling, calibrating, and nothing seemed to make a huge difference. My colors were coming out pretty good, but my images lacked punch, sharpness, and smooth transitions.

I started doing some research and realized that most pro printers were using RIP software to get the best out of their printers. This posed 2 problems, RIPs are expensive (very expensive) and my little R1800 wasn't supported yet in most commercial RIPs. After doing some more reading I came across an article talking about Qimage and how it was like a RIP, but used Epson's drivers rather then building its own. I surfed over to the Qimage site and downloaded their trial.

From the very first print I noticed a huge difference. All my resolution problems were gone. My images looked much smoother and pleasantly sharp, and this was with the program in all auto. Within 5 prints, I was shelling out the cash for the program. At the time, there was only 1 version of Qimage, but now there's a lite version. I'm not sure what the difference is, but for $50 I bought the "full" pro version and have updates for life.

If you print your own work, I highly recommend you look into Qimage.

One added benefit, if you ever need to up res anything, Qimage includes some, if not the best, up res algorithms available. You can open your photo, up res, and save to a file for continued PS work.

Here's the link to the website:

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

[jerrykr]

I second that emotion.

I've been using Qimage since I bought my first 1.2 mp digital. I use all the defaults too, and have always loved the output at any size my printer would do. I have some lovely prints from those little 1.2 mp files at 8x10. The interpolation really works when your are going to paper.

I've used it so long, I must have gone thru about 30 free upgrades. They just keep improving it, and the free upgrades for life is one of the best deals around.

Best software I've ever bought.

[Badge]

This looks very interesting. How much time does this add to your processing? You mention full auto, I assume this means that the processing, while another step, is quick

[evil4blue]

Originally Posted by Badge

This looks very interesting. How much time does this add to your processing? You mention full auto, I assume this means that the processing, while another step, is quick

My work flow is:
-Open in Nikon Capture
-Convert to 16-bit PSCS2
-Make edits
-Save as PSD (working file)
-Convert to 8-bit (since printer driver will convert to 8-bit anyway, this gives me more control)
-Crop to correct aspect ratio
-Save as Tif (printing file)
-Open Qimage
-Select paper profile
-Select printer options and paper size
-Select photo(s)
-Add to print queue (Interp: Max/Max/Pyramid/5)
-Print!

[jerrykr]

Very basically, you use PS or your favorite editor to PP your image, then save it.

Launch Qimage and drag the saved image to the page make-up area on the Qimage UI and press the print icon. Qimage automatically does interpolation (resampling) to the level you have previously set as a preference. Iterpolation processing for each image on the printed page takes around 5-10 seconds on my fairly slow PC.

When your printer's driver window pops up, select the quality level and paper type you are using and press go. (you have to do this regardless of print software).

There are many features and capabilities I am ignoring here, but that's all it takes to get a great print.

edited: evil4blue beat me to the post, but we are saying the same thing.

[jeffkohn]

IMHO QImage doesn't make your workflow cumbersome, it makes it more efficient. "Print with Preview" from Photoshop is more tedius to use and less flexible. QImage really shines in three areas IMHO:

1) "On-the-fly" print-specific processing. QImage can appy sharpening, interpolation, and cropping to the image for printing all without touching the original file. This means you don't have to create special "print" versions of your files with printer specific sharpening/crops.

2) Printing multiple images, at same or different size. You can print an 8x10, two 5x7's, and 3 4x6's, all in one print queue and it will even sort/layout the images for most efficient paper use.

3) It remembers the settings for each Printer Profile. Really useful if you have profiles for each paper you print on, since it will configure all the driver settings without you having to remember to.

[Hogleg 44]

I've had Qimage for over 6 years now and don't have any idea how to print anything any other way.
There is no other software that is updated and improved on any more than Qimage. Once you buy it, updates are free. Some times there are two or three per week.
Qimage has evolved into a awesomely powerful program over the years. Michael Chaney started it as a simple program to be able to print several different pictures of different sizes on one sheet of paper, and now it is one of the most powerful photo programs out there. There is a Yahoo group authored by Mike where you can solve problems, request features, report bugs and learn of the latest updates and bug fixes.
Anybody who has Photoshop should also have Qimage. It's a no brainer....
End of commercial ...don't get me started!!!

[morastm]

It is great if you are using Windows. Not so good on the Mac. No version for Macs...

You can run it under emulation on Macs, but not a great solution.

Monte

[fdi]

I also love Qimage. I use to print great 13x19’s from my D30. My favorite thing about Qimage is not having to store the res-ed up images which end up being enormously large 13x19 tiffs. Even if I do some mods during the printing Qimage just stores an attribute file so I can exactly reproduce the print later.

[BobbyC]

I guess I should jump into the orgy! I've used it for several years and it's very nice.

I don't even crop in PS, you can do that in QImage without changing the original as well.