Question for the Epson 7900/9900 users

[Garrick L]

Hi folks,

I set up my new 7900 yesterday and already have produced some stunning images off it but I have a couple of questions for those of you that have already gone through the learning curve.

1) I notice that my printed images are significantly darker than they look in PS CS5 on my monitor. I'm working around this by raising the brightness and re-printing, but am wondering if this is just the way the 7900 is or if there is a setting that I should be adjusting to make a general compensation?

2) When setting up a print is it best to set in the color management tab for the printer to manage the color or to set it to let Photoshop manage the colors? I have tried it both ways on the same image and don't think I see a difference? That is if I did it correctly

3) Regarding ink usage, I print mostly landscape scenes and will not be a power user, so I'm wondering what inks seem to get used more than others. In other words, I'm going to place an order for a set of cartridges and thinking that I might be smart to order 300ml in the ones that tend to get used the most and 150ml in all the others. Along with this, is there any that don't seem to get used much compared to others?

4) I purchased a roll of 24" Exhibition Canvas Satin and notice that there isn't a pre-loaded profile for it. The manual says to use the Water Color Bright paper which I did for my first test with this paper. I also went to Epson's download site and see that there is a profile for the 7900, but after clicking the download button, I couldn't figure out how to get it to the printer. Any advice?  Unlike the firmware upgrade, I did that and it automatically went to the printer.

Thank you so much for helping this newbie along the learning curve.

Garrick
http://500px.com/Garrick_Liddell

[Alan Goldhammer]

Potential answers:

1) see Andrew Rodney's piece on why my prints are too dark here.

2) you should always have a good color managed workflow using the correct profile for the media you are printing on and let the software manage the colors using the profile.  If it is a good profile, it will correct for the inaccuracies in the color production of the printer.

3) don't have an answer other than to monitor your ink usage over time and see which inks are used up fastest.

4) the downloaded profile is not sent to the printer but stored on your computer for use with the photo software that you are using.  I can only speak to Windows computers and it's pretty easy to install the profiles.  Once you download them and unzip them if necessary, just right click on the mouse to install.  I cannot advise you on installing profiles on a Mac.

You might also want to get the latest LuLa from Camera to Print instructional video as it covers all the questions you pose (save #3) in much greater detail.

[davidh202]

Garrick,

Alan about said it all.
I was under the impression startup would pretty much drain the carts and I had ordered a complete replacement set  of 150s with the printer. A year later I have replaced 5 colors  4 are very low now (1% for quite a while), the Green and Orange show the least amount of use but are finally dwindling. If I were to buy the 44" knowing that now I'd skip the 9900 save almost$1000 and go for the 9890 (8color), as I really don't see the need for the "extra gamut of the Orange and Green for my photographs.
 I believe it was the LK that went first and is used the most, so when you replace it go for the 300ml.
Unless you have a large print run scheduled, I'd wait until your showing 3% left and then order,on the other carts wait till showing 1%  that way you get freshest dates and don't have carts waiting around to be used. Ink is avilable quickly from many sources
Keep a  piece of plastic sheeting draped over the printer when it's not being used. Keeps it free from dust and also helps to retain humidity inside the unit .

It's interesting that there are all kinds of deals going on for Epson papers all the time but never for ink...hmm

I had a 24" roll of Cold Press BWFA and just ordered 3 for the price of two (with  mail in rebate) and filled in on the CP Natural and the two Hot Press FA. since I have been doing alot of art reproductions for clients and the Fine Art papers are fantastic.

David

[Garrick L]

David and Alan, thank you so much for the information, It helps a great deal.
 
David, how do you see the % left in each cartridge, all I see is a bar graph showing each color and what is left?

Cheers,

Garrick
http://500px.com/Garrick_Liddell
 

[JohnHeerema]

At some risk of oversimplification:
- I find that LK, LVM, and LC get used a fair bit more than anything else.
- The Ink remaining indicator is non-linear - the last 1% is considerably bigger than other 1% increments. There's a printer menu to see the levels as text.
- Andrew Rodney's article is very good, and I'd suggest going through his process yourself - but chances are you calibrated your monitor too bright.

[davidh202]

The %  shows on the Status Monitor that pops up when printing only when the carts go below a fixed level remaining, along with a low ink warning. I don't remember if The Status Monitor is off or on by default ,you might have to enable it if you don't see it on screen,  (located in the Utility tab of the driver).

[Schewe]

First off, be sure you download and install the most recent driver and utilities...since you don't mention the country of origin, can't help you with the driver version...

#1, how is your display calibrated and profiled? Dark prints are generally the result of a display that is too bright.

#2 Uh, really? ya gotta ask? You need to set Photoshop to Manage Color and pck the correct profile (see below)...

#3 LK is used a lot...but you should have backups of all inks. The initial 150 ML carts get sucked down by 40% or so just to charge the lines. If you print a lot, you need to have ALL inks on hand (unless you can spend the time waiting for delivery). When an ink cart is listed as "low" then keep printing until the printer asks for a new cart...then load the cart and re-order.

#4 go to the Epson web site (depending on your country) and check for the most recent ICC profiles–the most recent canvas is an additional download. As to how to load the profile, it would be useful to know what OS you are using (as I recall, the Epson profiles have separate Mac & Win downloads).

Once set up, RTFM...

[Wayne Fox]

An additional note, the LK gets sucked down twice as much as the other colors on initial install because of the need to charge the MK line then the PK line, which means the LK line basically gets charged twice.

LK is by far the most used color as well, so it won't last long at all after setting up a new printer.  The others will last longer, but as Jeff said you can't really predict so don't wait too long.  I don't know if it's been  mentioned, but wait until the printer stops and tells you the cartridge is empty as well.  It will stop mid print if necessary and as long as you have one handy and can change it out there won't be any artifacts.  If you run to the store to buy one, you'll probably get a dent in the print from sitting in the rollers.

I sell a LK cartridge along with every new Epson printer because I know they'll need it soon.  I also recommend that whatever size of cartridges you decide on, get the size larger in LK.  so if you are going to run the 150's run a 350 in the LK and if you are using the 350's use a 700 in the LK.

[Garrick L]

Thanks folks for all the info, it helps a lot.

The thing I'm confused about is when I went to the Epson download site and downloaded the Exhibition Canvas Satin profile, I thought that it would go into the printer under "select paper" and that is how it knows the profile when I choose that paper in the printer menu. Obviously this newbie to printing has that all wrong, lol.  So, once I download it it sounds like I want to select it in the menu after clicking print and then selecting "Let PS manage the color"? but I can't figure out where to put that download so can select it as the correct profile once I'm at that point. Sorry for being so thick on this, but this part just isn't clear to me yet.

For those that asked, I'm in the USA and my OS is Windows Vista 64 and I'm running Photoshop CS4.

Thanks all,

Garrick
http://500px.com/Garrick_Liddell

[davidh202]

Garrick,
 If you have the profile downloaded and are running Win7 just right click the file and select 'install profile' from the menu.
It will be put in your Windows color profiles folder.  You will then select that profile as your profile (paper type), when you set up your printing settings in Photoshop. In the Printer driver and in the printers control panel paper choice menu, you select Watercolor Paper Radient White, which simply sets the correct settings for paper thickness, ink demand,dry time, etc., which is the closest match to the canvas your using since they don't have it listed in the Media Type drop down menu .
You can make that appear in the media type menu if you set it up as a custom paper (instructions are  in the manual) or if you have a custom profile made for it, but it's not necessary if you don't, just choose WTRW.

BTW:
when you look for the profile in the profiles folder there is the older group in the Alphabetical order that shows the olderr papers starting with the designation of Epson Stylus Pro 7900 9900 ....
They changed the profile names to shorten them and you will find it if you scroll further down the alphabetical profile name list in the S's. 
The new profile names start SP7900 9900  ...the canvas will be listed as   SP7900 9900 ECSMkv1.

Hope that helps
David

[Garrick L]

Garrick,
 If you have the profile downloaded and are running Win7 just right click the file and select 'install profile' from the menu.
It will be put in your Windows color profiles folder.  You will then select that profile as your profile (paper type), when you set up your printing settings in Photoshop. In the Printer driver and in the printers control panel paper choice menu, you select Watercolor Paper Radient White, which simply sets the correct settings for paper thickness, ink demand,dry time, etc., which is the closest match to the canvas your using since they don't have it listed in the Media Type drop down menu .
You can make that appear in the media type menu if you set it up as a custom paper (instructions are  in the manual) or if you have a custom profile made for it, but it's not necessary if you don't, just choose WTRW.

BTW:
when you look for the profile in the profiles folder there is the older group in the Alphabetical order that shows the olderr papers starting with the designation of Epson Stylus Pro 7900 9900 ....
They changed the profile names to shorten them and you will find it if you scroll further down the alphabetical profile name list in the S's.  
The new profile names start SP7900 9900  ...the canvas will be listed as   SP7900 9900 ECSMkv1.

Hope that helps
David

Helps a lot David, thank you so much for all your advise. One question I still have though, where you choose "Let Photoshop Manage Colors" under that it says "Remember to disable color management In the printer dialog box."  What does it mean by this?

Wayne, great advise thank you, I ordered a full set of cartridges today in 150ml except the LK which I ordered in 350ml  

Thanks again and thanks to all as well

[davidh202]

In the Driver in the Mode  menu choose the custom radio button and it will say color controls in the box underneath,
then put your cursor on the down arrow at the right side and a drop down menu will appear...
choose  'Off (no color adjustment)'  and Photoshop will be in charge of color management to the printer.

[davidh202]

One more important item that you should do is make sure you download the latest firmware as the printer as packaged probably is out of date.
You need to have the printer turned on and paper loaded so you don't get error messages.
Go to the Epson Remote Panel Utility  and do it from there if you haven't already done so.
You can download the Remote Panel 2 from this Page (Windoze 64 bit if your running Win 7) if you didn't download it from the packaged software disc.
The firmware takes a while to download and install so be very patient until you get the finished message.
Hopefully your on broadband.
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=119097&prodoid=63079721&infoType=Downloads&platform=All

I put shortcuts for it, and the driver on the Desktop for easy access  

Happy printing,
David

[Garrick L]

Hi David, got your previous explanation and it's crystal clear. I have a 24 X 36 printing as I'm typing this. I did update the firmware right away when I set the 7900 up the other day.

Thank you so much for your help, you have really helped me a lot and I appreciate this.

Cheers to you..

-Garrick