New PiezoDN Beta Driver Status

PiezoDN Digital Negatives
1

Dear group. I’m going to privately release the Piezography Beta Driver on this PiezoDN group (downloadable by PiezoDN customers only) first. It’s been a lot of time and effort put into this driver and it’s by no means bug free. The beta will be updated swifty but it’s state at the moment is very early stage!

FAQ:

Why build a driver?

We started this project to support SureColor P400, P600, and P808 printers because I noticed micro-lining in digital negatives and gloss prints with QuadtoneRIP.

What’s going to be new with this driver?

  1. 5760x2880dpi on the small formats.
  2. 2880x2880dpi on the large formats.
  3. new "eventone hybrid" dither which just eliminates dots with pro and k7 ink.
  4. Less "cross-hatch" patterns.
  5. No micro-lining on R2000 and 1430 printers.
  6. Less or zero banding of the first and last inch on small format printers.
  7. Simple organization using a Media Type > Ink Type menu system.
  8. Vacuum, Platen Gap, Print speed, etc, all choosable from the driver.
  9. Future support for innovative (currently secret) projects that we are cooking up in the R&D lab.
What printers will be supported first?

P400, P600, P808, P7000, P9000,

Then,

4900,7900,9900,3800,3880,4800,4880,R2000,R3000,7800,7880,9800,9880,R2880

Then,

1430,1400,etc.

Will you support Piezography paper (not just film) printing?

Yes. Off the bat there will be some paper printing supported but this will be extremely minimal and subject to change. The priority is PiezoDN first (because PiezoDN demands such fidelity!). We have to build an external blending tool for Pro ink printing so this will take some time.

Where can I find the beta installer?

It’s not ready yet but I’ll post a link on this thread when I have it gussied up enough for first test. The purpose of this beta release is to get user feedback so I can make it good!

All the best,

more soon,

Walker

2

Hello Walker - I am looking forward to working with the Beta. Thanks for all your work.

3

Hi Walker,

How is the situation with the new Driver for PiezoDN?

Is it something that is not needed anymore with the last updates of QTR, or do you plan to release it publicly soon? I know it has been on beta testing for some years now, but no idea how the overall context has been changing, as for the need of that driver anymore?

If/when released, will it also provide better results for older machines and K7 ink for digital negs?

Thanks and regards,

Rafael

4

Noise and crosshatch is still a problem, I’d love to see some developments for the beta driver with DN !

5

The noise is related to how the last 4 values in the highlights are inverted because Gutenprint 5 does not allow for ink in pixel value 255. It’s a bit out of my hands unless a more competent programmer wants to fix that on the FOSS side *gutenprint

best,
Walker

6

So would this yield less noise in the dense areas if you were to invert the curve and just tolerate having to remember to send negative images through print tool ?

7

yeah it should

best,
Walker

1 Like
8

Are you still working on a driver?

2 Likes