Hi all,
I am trying to best understand the meaning of all the settings of the Epson ABW driver (I have a R2880)
I ran some experiments.
I used the very useful test image Keith Cooper posted on his web site:
[a href=\'index.php?act=findpost&pid=0\']http://tinyurl.com/5dm645[/a]
I learned a little bit about the meaning of the driver's setting from
[a href=\'index.php?act=findpost&pid=0\']http://tinyurl.com/27jojl[/a]
In all my trials I used:
QIMAGE 2009.09
ABW
Printer profile: sRGB (see Eric's post)
Intent: Relative colorimetric (again, see Eric's post)
Colormunki to read the patches
Paper: Epson Ultra Premium Luster
Test 1: Color Control/Advanced/Tone left to the default "neutral" setting (corresponds to darker, if I remember well)
Test 2: Color Control/Advanced/Tone set to "normal"
What I saw is:
The "darker" print is darker than screen (calibrated monitor), and the L* of the 21-step wedge has a reasonably linear shape (I am attaching QTrip graphics)
The "normal" print is still darker than screen, the L* has a shape that looks like a PS curve to enhance the details in the midtones.
The print in this case really does have much more detail in the dark shadow areas, as the screen shows. The Dmax, which is affected by the max ink, does not change
Since this is called the "tone" control I assume it is normal that it would just modify the shape of the L* and not, for example, the ink limit.
The questions I have are:
- Why would epson set the default to something that makes the print so much darker ?
- The setup that has a linear L* does come out with very dark, but all experts say that you should linearize your profile, but then you lose shadows.
I'm sure there's something I'm not getting, but don't know what.
Thank you for your help.
Marco
