What is Epson Thinking??!!

[asislen]

I'm seriously thinking about purchasing an Epson 7900, but at the moment, I have a 7800 and a 3800.  I recently got a sample pack of the "Signature Worthy" papers.  When I went to the Epson U.S. website to download profiles for the various papers, primarily the Hot Press and Cold Press papers, I didn't see profiles for the 7800, although they were there for the 3800.  So I emailed Epson tech support, and here's the answer I got:
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Hi Alan,
Unfortunately Epson will not make any profiles for the 7800. The majority of our 7800 users, are now using the 7880 and 7900. If you like to use one of our Signature Worthy papers, you will need have someone to make you a custom ICC profile.

Inkjetart.com makes custom ICC profiles.
http://www.inkjetart.com/custom_profiles/

Thank you again for contacting Epson.

Jesse C
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Is it just me, or does anyone else find this totally unacceptable?  Wouldn't you think Epson would want to sell as much of these new papers as possible?  They make the profiles available for the 3800, but not the 7800?  I have a Gretag iOne, so I can make my own paper profiles, but that isn't the point.  Epson, you now have me re-thinking purchasing a 7900!  I'd appreciate any other thoughts on this.

[Gemmtech]

That does seem strange, though I don't know how long ago the 7800 was introduced or more importantly discontinued?  You would have to believe that most are still in operation?

[Ellis Vener]

Try contacting http://www.Booksmartstudio.com They may already have a very good profile for your specific combination.

[Roscolo]

You would think that upon being informed by one of their customers that they have overlooked profiles for their "signature worthy" papers on one of their printers, that they would create those profiles and add them to the website pronto. Thanks for reminding me why I and so many others abandoned Epson years ago.

What is Epson thinking? You give them too much credit. As you can see from your experience, the folks at Epson stopped thinking long ago. 

[Farmer]

I think some of you may not understand the process of making a canned profile.  It requires taking prints and sampling from around 100 printers.  Since the 7800 has been discontinued for quite some time (it's now 3 generations old, basically), that may be a very difficult proposition.

It's not sufficient to simply take one old 7800 and make a profile and offer that.  There's a lot of cost due to time and QA involved in making a canned profile that is suitable for an entire market worth of product.

Of course it would be great if they could make a profile for all the models, and of course the 7800 is likely still in high use, but sometimes it's not as easy as it may seem.  A custom profile could be made for you without too much cost that would perform better than a canned profile anyway.

[Schewe]

There's a lot of cost due to time and QA involved in making a canned profile that is suitable for an entire market worth of product.

Not to mention the per profile licensing fees required for public distribution.

[Farmer]

Not to mention the per profile licensing fees required for public distribution.

That's a very good point.  Profiles are created in different ways and different places/people.

[teddillard]

For the record, the 7800 was released in Fall of 2005.  Just happened to be looking that up...
By the way, fuggettabout profiles, have you seen the list of recent printers not supported in Snow Leopard? 

[davidewers]

Its just not epsont hjat deos not develop profiles or drivers for old equipment. HP does not make drivers for windows 98 anymore. I still get people with real old computers that are upset because the new cheap printer they bought does not come with drivers for thier old OS. I try to explain to them that is not cheap for these companies to develop a driver free of bugs that will work for them

[Sven W]

ImagePrint has 7800 profiles for Hot and Cold Press

/Sven

[Paul2660]

You should be able to use the 3800 profile on the 7800 as they have the same ink set, except the 3800 has both matte and photo on board as I recall.

I have used the Atkinson 11880 profiles (very good by the way) on my 9880 for many years now with great results.  He created an entire series for the
11880 for both the matte and photo inkset. 

I have never tried the 3800 Hot press profile on my 7800, but I can't see why it would not work. 

Paul Caldwell

[abiggs]

The 7800 is not exactly a new printer. I don't blame Epson at all for not going back and creating profiles for printers that are more than 5 years old. It takes a ton of time and money to develop and support profiles.

[langier]

You might try buying your paper through Lexjet and asking them for a profile to support your purchase. Another option to get you in the ball park is to use a profile for a similar paper from either Epson or another vendor. Close is sometimes good enough to get you going.

[Alan Goldhammer]

You could also splurge for a ColorMunki and never have to worry about manufacturer generated profiles again.  I've found that the CM profiles are every bit as good or in some cases better on my 3880.

[digitaldog]

You could also splurge for a ColorMunki and never have to worry about manufacturer generated profiles again.  I've found that the CM profiles are every bit as good or in some cases better on my 3880.

My thoughts exactly.

[RFPhotography]

You should be able to use the 3800 profile on the 7800 as they have the same ink set, except the 3800 has both matte and photo on board as I recall.

I have used the Atkinson 11880 profiles (very good by the way) on my 9880 for many years now with great results.  He created an entire series for the
11880 for both the matte and photo inkset. 

I have never tried the 3800 Hot press profile on my 7800, but I can't see why it would not work. 

Paul Caldwell

Same inkset but, if I recall, different print head design. 

[Paul2660]

Bob,

Good point, I overlooked. 
However the 11880 and 9880 have different print heads and the Atkinson 11880 profiles work fine on my 9880.

Paul Caldwell