I've made some progress in obtaining better color match after finding that LR has some problems responding to attempts to set values in some of the Page and Print Setup dialogs. Truely bizarre behavior. I have no good ideas on how to figure out if it is the fault of LR2.6, some weird Vista64 filehandling/permission issues or HP9180 profile contents. There are no errors on screen or in the Event logs to indicate access violations.
I started the day by uninstalling the HP9180, cleaning out the profiles from the spool directory, running a registry cleaner then reinstalling the HP9180. I then began print testing again and found some strange results.
For example printing the PDITest jpg image from LR to the HP9180 is the same whether application managed printing is selected in LR or the printer driver or not. All four combinations of those two variables results in the same output. Yet Qimage and PS respond properly to those setting generate the same results as each other and both show a softproof which is borne out by the printed result. The softproof and prints from these two differ significantly from LR prints for this image file.
Suspecting something may be unusual with that image file I tried printing a NEF of a newborn on a white bedsheet from LR and it differs from the on screen image apparently only by the "whiteness" of the paper (HP APP Glossy).
I then moved the image to PSCS4 and softproofed it and it again differs even less which can probably be attributed to the color temp of the monitor (profiled at 5800K) vs the color temp (D50) of the viewing lights. The resultant PS printout is to my eye indistinguishable from that of the LR printout.
I've got more testing to do to see if the PDITest jpg is unusual in some way compared to jpgs shot by our cameras. QImage seems to think there is an embedded aRGB1998 profile in it. Perhaps LR is choking on that and passing it through to the printer unmodified.
In the meantime I need some paper advice. Is there a place to go to get a comparative information on paper whiteness which would be valid for this pigment printer. I'm not so much concerned at this point with feel or gloss issues. Even though we're using glossy at this time a reduced gloss short of matt would be acceptable. Suggestions for specific papers welcomed that would be available in 8x11 or 13x19 that would have a whiter white than that of the HP APP Glossy.
Thanks
Jim Miller
I'll give you an A+ for effort with the 9180. As for cleaning the sponges I use the little paint sponges, one for each color, you can buy at places like Lowes and a jug of water. All this I found out about at the Yahoo HP9100 group. As for the problem with LR and using application controls print, all I can tell you is I found that when I set the paper ICC in the HP short cut box. I found that I needed to make a specific default for each type paper I used and at times have to use "reset" to make sure the program does as I want. It had a tendancy, at least as I saw it, to jump to a default setting and had set up on a default paper. Say I was using Harman, I would set up my selections including appication manages printing and closed the box. When I would re check the settings it would have reverted back to the default Hahnamule. After making a preset for the Harman and saved it, the program would stay at that paper choice.
I do not know if this is happening with you but I found it very annoying. Of course I would then enter LR select the paper profile for color management. In LR I then go to "page setup" on the left and do my setup there then hit "print one".
Just thought I'd tell you how I do it. It may or may not help your problem but I suspect by now any little thing could possibly cure it. -Good Luck!
