Qimage - Great for Resizing and Printing

[scottbergerphoto]

I started using Qimage a while back for batch printing. It works very well for that with my Epson 2200. Saturday, I used it to make 11x14 pictures from a 1D Mark II file, shot JPEG 10 and edited in PS CS. Qimage used its own upsizing and pre printing sharpening algorithyms to upsize the file from 50mbs to 217mbs. The resulting prints were gorgeous. Absolutely no loss of detail.
Regards,
Scott

[Vegas Poboy]

Where can I find this software?

[scottbergerphoto]

www.ddisoftware.com/qimage
Regards,
Scott

[Vegas Poboy]

Thank You :D

[NativeCraft]

Scott,
I'm "ignernt" regarding this subject as I'm still a newbie to digital photog., so please forgive me for stupid questions.
But, why do you need separate printing software - I mean why don't you just print directly from Photoshop? Am I missing something by not using some sort of printing software?

Tom A.

[scottbergerphoto]

Scott,
I'm "ignernt" regarding this subject as I'm still a newbie to digital photog., so please forgive me for stupid questions.
But, why do you need separate printing software - I mean why don't you just print directly from Photoshop? Am I missing something by not using some sort of printing software?

Tom A.
The upsizing algorithyms in my opinion are superior to those in PS. I also find it easier to use QIMAGE to select a bunch of different photos for printing at different sizes and batch print them.
Scott

[ejwebb]

Scott,

The upsizing algorithyms in my opinion are superior to those in PS.

Out of curiosity, what is the basis for your opinion? Have you compared the two? I am curious because, I have tried a printing product from ACDSee and like it for the reasons you mentioned. It will come free with the ACDSee management software when I purchase it and I would like to keep using it if it does not have a negative impact on my print quality. Is the only way to test it to do just that - compare some prints and see?

Thanks!

[scottbergerphoto]

I have tried both ways of upsizing. I prefer the results from QIMAGE. It does all the work for me. I just tell it how big and it does it. I don't have to set anything other then some simple parameters. Download a free trial version and see for yourself.
Scott

[nosquare2003]

IMHO, the free software Irfanview does better resizing job than bicubic interpolation by PS.

[ejwebb]

I have Irfanview and use it to quickly browse photos but hads never thought to use it for resizing - have to check it out. The allure of the printing software is that you do your cropping, resizing, page layout all at once.

[scottbergerphoto]

I don't know about Irfanview but QIMAGE supports full color management which is important to me.

[Roger_Cavanagh]

I'm with Scott - Qimage provides better results than PS. Two of the reasons are that the upsizing algorithm seems superior, and Qimage always resizes so that the image send to the printer is at the optimum resolution for the particular printer. This also means that you don't have to resample to produce different size prints - just change the output size in Qimage.

The downsides are that preparing the file for print can be rather slow. It also interacts with my AV software - NOD32 - so I have to temporaily turn-off the resident AV monitor until the processing starts and then I can turn it on again.

Also the interface is distinctly quirky - and that's a polite way of putting it. :)

Regards,

[Conk]

I've been using Easy Photo Print that came with my Canon i960. I really like it's user friendly interface. Has anyone any comments about this print utility?

[jkelley]

Scott and/or Roger,

I have been contemplating trying Qimage to check out it's color management capabilities. The reason is that I currenly use Photoshop Elements for all my editing, and am, in general satisfied with it's picture editing capabilities (for right now). I am unsatisfied, however, with it's lack of advanced color management capabilities. Specifically, I don't believe PSE has the capability to convert images between color spaces. My understanding is that Qimage does (am I correct?)

In my workflow, I convert RAW images using Canon RAW image conversion (usually to 8 bit tiff), then edit in PSE using a profiled LCD monitor. I like using COSTCO (which uses the Fuji Frontier printers) to make prints, however, I've noticed that all my prints tend to have a yellow cast, as compared to the edited image when viewed on my monitor.

I can obtain ICC profiles for the specific COSTCO printers that I use (downloaded from Drycreek Photo), and was wondering if Qimage would allow me to convert my images to reflect those profiles? To my understanding, the Fuji Frontier printers are not "ICC aware", so imbedding a profile in the image will not do anything for you. You actually have to convert the image to a different colorspace, and I don't believe PSE can do that. I wonder if Qimage might be a lower cost option to upgrading to CSE for my current need?

Sorry for the long post, but I sure would appreciate an opinion.

Thanks!

[ejwebb]

I'll let these guys discuss Qimage with you as I have not experience with it. I agree with you that Elements 2.0 can't convert an image's colorspace. However, I have a better match with my home printer and the prints I have had made on a local Frontier by reverting my CRT monitor to its default factory profile and turning color management OFF in Elements. I found a few websites that provided tools to set the contrast and brightness, set the color temperature to daylight and that is all I tweaked. That may be against conventional advice but it works for me - without investing a lot of time and money on full color management.

You should check Adobe's website. They have announced Elements 3.0 which has 16 bit and RAW capability, as well as more advanced printing and image management capability. I have delayed my purchase of any photo management and printing software until I can find out more about 3.0 capabilities (whether it has curves, specifically). They also have not posted an upgrade price but the full version is just $99 so it has to be less than that.

Just another line of thinking for your consideration...

[Roger_Cavanagh]

jkelley,

Yes, Qimage can do that as you can save output to a new file rather than print it. It understands the embedded profile in the input image and you can specify the output profile to suit the printer+paper.

Regards,

[Scottes]

So QImage will let me upsize a photo to a file, and then I can just bring that to a pro shop for printing?

Now I'm interested.

Does it handle output for medium- and high-end printers and photolab stuff? Like an Agfa dlab-2 or a Lightjet?