Epson R1900 on Moab Somerset Museum Rag problem

[armand]

Any of you tested the Epson R1900 Moab profile for a Moab Somerset Museum Rag?
I tried printing and the colors are way off, completely wrong. I printed on the the same paper using the Moab Anasazi canvas profile with decent results.

I contacted Andy and he said he tested the profile and it looks good and thought it might be a problem with my matte printing. I don't have any matte paper around (although it works fine on the Anasazi canvas which is matte) but I tried the Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Matte profile with much better results. The later tests were done with the Onsight color evaluation image.

I checked numerous times all the settings: color managed by LR3 or QImage (printing from both gives the same result), ICM off, Ultra Premium Presentation Matte setting (I tried even the Premium presentation matte), BestPhoto, Moab Somerset Museum Rag R1900 profile, etc.

Anybody who tested it or has any idea what might be wrong?
It's getting frustrating as I bought the 13x19 (with some 8.5x11 which just arrived) and I already wasted half. Thanks

[kenben]

Hello Armand.I had a profile made by Andy for my Epson R1900 for the Moab Somerset Museum Rag.It worked fine.
When I did a print of one of my photos I was not happy.I contacted Andy and he sent me to the www.on-sight.com website to download a photo to test print.I must say the result was very very good.I had to make adjustments to my workflow to pringt on the matte paper.I fine the colors are much brighter than say using Epson Ultra Presentation Matte.

[armand]

He offered to make a custom profile for me also but first I want to make sure it's not something I can correct.

As I said, I printed the test image from onsight but the colors were just plain wrong which cannot be explained just by printer to printer variability. I just can't figure it out because if I use the anasazi profile from Moab the colors are almost accurate.

[NikoJorj]

Any clogged nozzle, perhaps?

[armand]

Nope, I tried that also as it happened to me in the past.

[armand]

As I have a ColorMunki I decided to try to make my own printer profile (I tried once in the past but the results were quite bad).

For a particular photo what I got looks like a combination of the photos on the Epson Luster and Moab Anasazi that I already had it printed before. Most of the colors are about the same as the Epson (blues I think are more accurate in my profile, similar to the Anasazi) but slightly darker than the Anasazi (which is the closest overall to my monitor). Probably I will try the custom profile from Moab in the search for perfection.  

As a side note, I printed the Onsight Evaluation Color after 4 charts with patches (the default 2, than 2 more generated out of other evaluation patches) and then after 4 more charts generated from my own images. There was no difference that I could see, so if you want to use ColorMunki for printing profiling using more than 4 charts won't make it better.

[abiggs]

Armand-

Just as a heads up, the profile you are using for Moab Somerset Museum Rag on your R1900 is the same profile that I made for Ken, as referenced earlier in the thread. I am not sure why you are not getting adequate output right now, but here are some more things to think about:

Are your inks within the expiration dates?
Can you confirm that you are using the matte black inkset instead of the photo black?
Can you do another nozzle check, only this time do the test printout at the end to confirm that no nozzles are acting badly?

[armand]

Inks are ok, and I already did the nozzle check.

I don't know how to say for sure what black it's using. I select the Ultra Premium Matte output and that's about it. I suspect it might me using a little as it did go down lately (and I didn't print that many on Epson Luster) but why the Anasazi canvas printing works so well? I have the same settings in the Epson driver. As far as I saw there is no option to decide which black is going to be used, just the selection of the medium.

It's frustrating because it doesn't make sense. I will send you those targets, if I get some of the colors a touch lighter comparing to the profile that I made (quite decent, much better than I expected) I would be quite happy.
I don't want to try that many papers. Looks that many in this forum think the Somerset Museum really does it for a matte medium so I really want to be able to use it at it's full potential.
I thought Epson Luster would be better but I hate the reflections I get almost in any position (I frame them without glass) and the results with the Anasazi canvas were really nice.

PS. If somebody wants to try it I can attach here the profile that I made.

[kenben]

If you select Ultra Premium Matte the printer sets itself up for matte ink.
Andy what happens if you use the fine art setting?.

[kenben]

Armand here is my setup

Ultra Premium Matte Paper
Best Photo
No Color adjustment
High Speed off
Gloss is faded out so you are set up for matte

Color Management - Document
Photoshop manages color
ICC Profile - Morab Somerset Museum Rag
Relative Colorimatic
Black Point Compensation  On

These are the setting I use

[armand]

I might give it a try with your settings also, although I already wasted a LOT of paper. (and time)

My usual settings are a little different:
-high speed - on
- I used perceptual with no black point compensation


I tried some soft proofing in QImage for both profiles. On softproofing both look ok. My initial print with dark colors looked close to a Relative with no black point compensation (although I didn't use that setting) but the others looked ok regardless of the rendering intent or the black point compensation.
Overall both the perceptual and the relative look similar on softproofing.