I'm in the process of testing out the Crane Museo Max paper using the ICC profile (MuseoMAX_Epson4000.icm) from their website for the Epson Stylus Pro 4000. I'm printing using Photoshop CS2 on MacOSX. While the paper is great, the print output simply looks horrible (looks like a profile problem) -- complete lack of detail in the shadows, nearly everything dark goes to black, and the colors are off. I do have a fully color calibrated workflow, and the soft proofing matches the printer output.
So I tried all the rendering intents, tried the blackpoint settings for those also, and no luck. The best settings seem to be the Perceptual with Blackpoint comp on.
I've had really great results with other matte paper, such as paper from Epson and the Hahnemuhle Photo Rag which looks great using the Perceptual rendering intent using their ICC profile -- full detail in the shadows, colors spot on.
Completely out of options, I did a test print using the Hahnemuhle Photo Rag profile on the Museo Max paper. Sure enough the colors are off (as expected) but the detail came back in the shadows! This seems to be a sign of a problem in the Museo Max factory profile when I get better results using a profile for the wrong paper.
I really like the Museo Max paper, no OBEs, no flaking like the Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, but it is 100% useless without a good color profile. Anyone have one?
One other thing I have noticed is that Crane gives a ICM instead of an ICC, (ICM being a Microsoft ICC knockoff right?). Perhaps the ICC has better information for the Perceptual Rendering Intent?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
- Timothy Farrar