Printer calibration

[Hlop]

Hi All,

We discussed monitor calibration many times here but, correct me if I'm wrong, no one mentioned printer calibration.

What are you doing for accurate printing colors? Using generic native printer's profiles? Buying Monaco EzColor, ColorVision or other calibration hardware/software bundle? Printing targets and ordering profiles from spectrograph/spectrometer owners?

[Nnnnsic]

From what I understand about printer calibration -- which isn't all that much -- printer calibration only really works on the incredibly high end printers... and I think you'll find that in here, most people don't have that.

Essentially, printers have a constant profile they can print to... that of the sRGB format, so if you calibrate your monitor to being at a proper sRGB format or if it has that as an option in your monitor colour temperature option, the two should be incredibly similar.

[sirhc55]

Printer final output is also determined by the paper being used as each type of paper has a different ”profile”.

[Hlop]

From what I understand about printer calibration -- which isn't all that much -- printer calibration only really works on the incredibly high end printers... and I think you'll find that in here, most people don't have that.

Essentially, printers have a constant profile they can print to... that of the sRGB format, so if you calibrate your monitor to being at a proper sRGB format or if it has that as an option in your monitor colour temperature option, the two should be incredibly similar.

Both sentences are ... incorrect. Profiling works on the lower and middle end printers. I saw the difference between original maker profile and profile made on spectrograph for Canon i950, Epson 2100 etc.

Printers take incoming data in RGB (not sRGB) format and then convert it to CMYK. And what profiling does is sqeezing photo's color gamut (e.g. AdobeRGB) to printers gamut, which is usually something unknown and much more narrow, to reproduce closest accurate colors. Monitor calibration doesn't mean that you will print proper colors

[Hlop]

Printer final output is also determined by the paper being used as each type of paper has a different ”profile”.

Actually 3 components are important and for any combination you have to make separate profile - ink, paper and printer

[AlistairF]

To get accurate colour, a custom ICC/ICM profile for each printer/ink/paper combination is a must.

We did some tests where I tried to use a custom ICC profile built for my friend's Epson R800 on my R800 where the profile on my printer produced warmer B&W output than on his printer. The same paper was used. We created and seperate profile for my R800 and the issue went away. This goes to show that two printers of the same model can vary from each other slightly in coulour output. For these tests we used a Gretag Macbeth colour analyser.

From experience, custom printer profiling provides dramatic results when you are using Pigment based printers such as the Epson 2000/2100/7600/R800, due to the way the ink sits on and into the paper compared to dye based ink. Dye inks appear to be more colour tolerant on different media.

Alistair

[Hlop]

Is this it? No one really calibrates home printers? Everyone is happy with generic profiles?

[the foto fanatic]

I have calibrated my monitor.
I use Epson profiles (downloaded from their US website - couldn't find them on the Aussie site) for my R800 and Epson paper.
I'm happy with the results.

[big pix]

I use generic profiles for an Epson 2100 and 7600 and not happy jan, I have had my screens profiled but I am not getting what I see on screen, which has led to looking at what is available at the Brisbane trade show. My prints out of the printer are about 1/3 of a stop too dark, but I ajust this using levels and output. I have downloaded the drivers from the US site but no improvement for my prints. I have tried various paper stocks and only use Epson Inks. I will keep you posted when I get my printer profiler and do profiles for my paper stocks, but not untill after the trade show.
I was printing using the OS drivers, when I should have been using Epson USB drivers after I made this change there was a minor improvement but I should not need to do ajustments to images that look correct on a profiled screen to get a good result

Cheers bp