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Author Topic: Color Prints on matte fineart paper (contrast)  (Read 2153 times)

alba63

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Color Prints on matte fineart paper (contrast)
« on: November 19, 2007, 02:23:33 pm »

Hello everyone,
recently I tried to print in color on Hahnemuehle "William Turner" matte paper - those papers look fine when printing b&w using the Epson black and white driver (I have the Epson 3800)

But the color print looks muddy and flat, specially in the darker midtones. I used the Hahnemuehle profile on their site, and I wonder why it is like that. How comes that black and white prints look good and punchy even on matte papers whereas color prints get so flat?

When I do a softproof with the Hahnemühle profile (simulate paper color setting ON) and try to adjust it with curves and such, it gets a little better but not very natural.

Is there an advice how to do good color prints with matte fineart papers?

Thanks, Bernie
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Brian Gilkes

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Color Prints on matte fineart paper (contrast)
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2007, 03:07:58 pm »

First check your workflow.
If OK and no improvement, , have a custom profile made .
Ensure you get a statistical analysis of the profle.
Check for linearity, especially in shadows, and a DMax above 1.5
All profiles are not equal.

Good luck
Brian
www.pharoseditions.com.au
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JeffKohn

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Color Prints on matte fineart paper (contrast)
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2007, 04:39:20 pm »

It could be the profile, I seem to recall that in the past when I tried some of the Hahnemuhle ICC profiles I got really poor results in saturated darker colors, especially greens and browns. Creating a custom profile helped tremendously.

On my Epson 2400, the "ICM - No Color Adjustments" mode puts down way too much ink in the darker tones when using matte papers, and what happens is that the shadow tones become such a muddy mess. This isn't helped by the fact that GMB profiling software has a tendency to favor saturation over tonal accuracy (depending on the options chosen for creating the profile), and dark greens and browns turn all splotchy and cartoonish.

By using the "Color Controls - Adobe RGB" mode to print my test target I was able to get a much better ICC profile.

You can test whether this is the cause of your problems by printing without a profile and using Color Controls mode to see if you get better shadow tones. Of course, without a profile you may find that overall color accuracy is less than desired, but if Color Controls helps with the darker saturated tones you can always have a custom profile made using that mode.

The reason your ABW prints look better is because they're not using the ICC profile.
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Jeff Kohn
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alba63

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Color Prints on matte fineart paper (contrast)
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2007, 08:45:19 am »

Thank you for your answers, I will check the workflow again and possibly get a custom profile.

regards, Bernie
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