iPF8100, Media Settings, Locked Out, No Information

[mcmorrison]

Hello,

I am a largely happy iPF8100 owner. The lack of access to the media settings, however, has been aggravating since the beginning. What are the differences between Canon's various settings?

Having noticed slight banding across a light-green to dark-green transition, I went looking for errors in settings. When I went to the "Print Mode" setting in the plug-in, I found that using "Special 5" (my usual setting and the one I have made my profiles for) does not allow the "Highest" setting, only "High". The only gloss media type I found that does allow this setting is "Glossy Photo Paper". Of course, I haven't been able to find out if the ink limits are the same with this media type, nor what else is different, if anything.

I have found that using the "Highest" setting does in fact remove the banding (Ilford Gold Fibre Silk).

So, I am wondering what is known about these (and other) media types? Does anyone have info on this? Is "Glossy Photo Paper" the same as "Special 5" except one is allowed to use "Highest"? Or are the differences deeper?

Many thanks,

Michael Morrison

[John Hollenberg]

Unfortunately, we don't know the answer to this question.  The known ink limits for different media types are shown here:

http://canonipf.wikispaces.com/Total+Ink+Limits

Canon won't provide any information on their Canon paper specific media types (understandable).  However, they shouldn't be locking the  media types to certain paper paths, and the lack of the highest setting for Special 1-5 is a problem too.  In fact, I think these are potentially the biiggest problems with the Canon system:

http://canonipf.wikispaces.com/Considerati...ng+This+Printer

We have been complaining about this for a couple of years at the Wiki, but Canon has never responded.

--John

[mcmorrison]

Hello John,

Thanks for your thoughts. It nice to know, at least, that I have company!

I agree, it is one of my biggest concerns with the Canon.

So farm it appears that my "Special 5" profile works the same using the "Glossy Photo Paper" media type, and that unidirectional is not needed to resolve the banding, as long as I am using the "Highest" setting. This suggests that the differences in the two media settings may not be too great. If I learn more, I'll post again.

Thanks,

Michael Morrison

[jim t]

Does Canon Heavy weight Satin have a profile for soft proofing in PS, when the configuration tool updates the media?

It doesn't in Photo Shop for me.  

Any suggestions on what profile I should use instead to get a decent result?

[mcmorrison]

Hello All,

I ran a few tests to evaluate the (mysterious) media settings, and report the results here.

I printed Scott Martin’s “Media Selection Image” (http://www.on-sight.com) with several of the most promising Photo Black media types that allow the “Highest” setting using the plug-in. Other settings were: 600 ppi, 16 bit, no color management, and bidirectional printing. I used the same media settings on the plug-in and the printer. I printed on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk cut sheets (8.5 x 11).

All of the prints looked great with no bleeding between black and yellow or any other combination. All the detailed, color-contrast designs were identical and perfect.

I don’t have a spectro, so I scanned each print (after overnight curing) on my Epson 10000XL, using the same settings for each scan and placing the print in exactly the same spot on the scanner bed. I then opened the images in CS3 and measured the “K” values at the same spot of the image, with the eyedropper set to “31 x 31”. (I printed at 300 ppi without resampling, and scanned at 300 ppi using VueScan set to 16 passes). I scanned one print 4 times interspersed with the other scans to evaluate the scanner’s reproducibility (turned out to be ±0.05%).

Listed here are the media types and the “K” value for each. I took the five blackest (8.0%) and measured the saturation values for the RGBCMY patches. The sat values were identical for all except for “Premium Glossy 280” which was about 1% lower (perhaps the same within error?).

From the remaining four, I chose the one with the most appropriate title, “Premium Semi-Glossy 280” on the basis that whatever remaining secret sauce distinguishes these, that the name was all I had to go on.

I hope this is of value!

Best Regards,

Michael Morrison



PLUG-IN NAME                            BLACK VALUE
Premium Semi-Glossy 280           8.0%
Heavyweight Glossy Photo 2        8.0%
Premium Semi-Glossy 200           8.0%
Heavyweight SemiGlos Photo 2     8.0%
Premium Glossy 280                    8.0%
Premium Glossy 200                   8.1%
Glossy Photographic 240              8.4%
Glossy Photographic 240              8.5%
Glossy Photographic 240             8.5%
Glossy Photographic 240             8.5%
Satin Photographic 240               8.5%
Polished Rag 300                        8.5%
HW Satin  Photo                         8.5%
Satin Photographic 270               8.5%
Glossy Photographic 270             8.5%
HW Glossy Photo                       8.7%

[mcmorrison]

Hello All,

One more result to add: I made a couple test prints using my "Special 5" profile with the media type set to "Special 5" and to "Premium Semi-Glossy 280". On first inspection, the color is identical. The Special 5, however, holds highlights better than the SG 280, while the SG 280 reveals more shadow detail. This must speak to a tone curve difference between the two?

Best,

Michael Morrison

[Scott Martin]

Fantastic work Michael. This kind of testing can really make it easier on the rest of us. I'd love to see some spectro measurements from your prints, just to confirm your results. Plus it would be great to repeat this test for matte papers.

[mcmorrison]

Hello Scott,

I'm glad if this is valuable!

I have the test prints and can send them to you if you like. I understand that you have found some differences among the various profiles that show up as "identical" in these crude tests. It would be good to know if there are indeed other differences between these, or if they are just clones with different names.

Best,

Michael

[neile]

Michael,

That's very useful information. We should get it added to the Canon wiki.

Neil

[John Hollenberg]

I found that using "Special 5" (my usual setting and the one I have made my profiles for) does not allow the "Highest" setting, only "High". The only gloss media type I found that does allow this setting is "Glossy Photo Paper".

Back to the original question, I did some testing on my iPF6100 and and found quite a few Media Types that allow Highest (=32 pass).  This is with Media Configuration Tool 2.63.01.  The glossy Media Types with 32 pass available are:

Glossy Photographic Paper 190 gsm
Glossy Photographic Paper 240 gsm
Glossy Photographic Paper 270 gsm
HW Glossy Photo Paper
Premium Glossy Paper 200
Premium Glossy Paper 280
Glossy Photo Paper
Heavyweight Glossy Photo Paper 2
Photo Paper Plus Glossy 2

There are a number of others for semi-gloss, etc.  The new FAQ on the Wiki is here:

http://canonipf.wikispaces.com/32+Pass+Printing

Of course, I don't know if there are differences between the iPF6100 and iPF8100.  However, be sure you have the latest Media Configuration Tool for the iPF8100 installed.

The most interesting finding while doing this test is that none of the Media Types on the iPF6100 are "locked" to a single paper path.  All (except POP Board, which must be Front Loaded) allow both Manual and Roll.  This is in stark contrast to results reported a year ago on the Wiki that Media Types are locked to certain paper paths (including on the iPF6100), which was a major complaint about the iPF printers and third party papers using Photo Black ink.  We are awaiting reports on other printers in the iPF series to see if this problem has been rectified for all of the models.

--John