Thanks! I guess RTFM (more carefully) is in order. I'm still interested in some feedback / comments from some of our printing gurus here ( e.g. Jeff Schewe, Mark Segal, Dan Berg ) on what might constitute "bests practices" for initial set up of a printer like the SC P5000, and perhaps even some insight from people they know at Epson on the use of the calibration utility.
I find it interesting that Epson doesn't have the calibration utility as part of the maintenance items in the appropriate driver tab, nor even available for download in the US.
Rand
If I could get access to manual, I might offer an opinion. HOwever, tried several different Google searches and cannot find the manual anywhere. There are some reviews of the 'old' Epson ColorBase utility which can be used to calibrate printers such as mine (3880). Those printers do not have onboard sensors and one has to print out a calibration chart and then read it manually with a spectro to do the calibration. The calibration file is read and the ColorBase software uses it to modify the printer driver to bring the printer back to the factory setting. There is a review of ColorBase here on LuLa from about 10 years ago and Eric Chan also has directions on his Epson 3800 website. I do not know if the new calibration utility software operates in the same manner.
The issue of calibration is only important if there is drift in the printing accuracy. In such cases, the ICC profile which was prepared at a previous point in time would no longer be accurate and in the absence of doing a printer calibration a new profile must be prepared. I do all my profiles using ArgyllCMS and there is a tool in the software package to do a printer calibration at the time point one does the initial profile(s) work. If one notices color drift, a new calibration is done and then the ICC profile can be modified using the differential calibration files to bring it back into specification.
Most of the Epson RGB printers are well behaved and there is little drift. I have not felt the need to do a calibration as examination of the color printing patches has shown very little drift if any since I have owned this printer.