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Author Topic: Optimal Printing Toolset to Canon iPF6500 - Profile Builder and RIP?  (Read 3905 times)

Lust4Life

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I have been away from printing and photography for 1.5 years.

Sold my Epson 4800 back then and just now purchased a new Canon iPF6400 (avoided Epson's new units due to extensive posts on clogging - I can go 5 weeks without doing a print)

Previously, I used one of the older X-Rites to build profiles and ColorBurst as a RIP.
After many years of faithful use, the X-Rite bit the dust.
As to ColorBurst, I never enjoyed using it; found the interface and workflow to be "brain dead".
Since I used to develop software on SGI, I know enough about it to be dangerous and as such can feel qualified in criticizing their interface and workflow.

Time to update/upgrade.

What I'm finding in my current searches is XRite's i1Photo Pro 2 seems to be an excellent choice.
Any other profile builders that offer more/better results that I should consider?

As to RIPs, this time I'm thinking of using the Adobe tools in Lightroom 4 or CS6 and skipping the 3rd party RIP all together.
I was so unimpressed with ColorBurst that I'm really shy to pay the upgrade to a 24" printer and end up with the same problems that annoyed me before.

Are many folks getting excellent results using Adobe printer tools?

In short, I want to best image result on paper but feel the value of a 3rd party RIP is not justified.
Tell me I'm nuts, but define why.

Pete Berry

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Jack, in following the Canon LFP Wiki forum for the past 7 years, there is almost no discussion of RIPs, except to say that custom profiles, along with priting through Canon's superb 16-bit PS plugin produces better and more predictable prints.

The plugin has a full set of color controls for fine tweaking,  and as for ink density choices, the "Special #xx" media choices give five levels of density for both PK and MK papers.  Eg, I use Special #5 (highest density in my iPF5100) for my Ilford GFS as well as RR UltraPro Satin proofing paper.

Pete


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Lust4Life

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Pete,

That info was appreciated.  Reviewed the site you mentioned.
I just ordered from X-Rite the iOnePhoto Pro 2.
Should be here next week and I'll start building profiles for the new printer.

Now to master the Canon driver for B&W images.
Any suggestions on how to get the most out of this printer would be appreciated, particularly as it relates to B&W images.

Jack
« Last Edit: May 22, 2013, 09:06:02 pm by Lust4Life »
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Scott Martin

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The wiki is the place to be for those printers. RIPs won't offer any additional image quality, just workflow improvements like nesting, tiling, cut line marks, etc. In fact, some of the newest RIPs (like ImageNest, Overdrive and Qimage) focus on those features and use the driver for communication with the printer.

Be sure to use the printer's on-board calibration procedure BEFORE profiling your papers. You'll want to continue using the on-board calibration process every 6-12 months to obtain consistency over time, and potentially across head replacements. And for profiling, i1Profiler is the best around. Focus on the Perceptual rendering options in i1P to really get the best color results for your workflow.
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Scott Martin
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keith_cooper

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Excellent printer - I've a 6450 here at the moment on loan from Canon (with a spectro - I've another post about this)

Print quality is perhaps a tad better than our own 8300, but certainly not enough to make me upgrade ;-)  With good profiles and the Canon PS plugin I've no need for a rip at all (I use ImageNest for layout when needed)

One thing to note is that if you print with the plugin, then in 32 bit (my MacBook running CS5 in 32 bit) I can install the Adobe CMM - this allows you to print with BPC
On my desktop Mac (64 bit) there is no Adobe CMM, so if you want BPC, you'll need to do the conversion before printing.  I built a i1Profiler profile for some rag paper I was testing and the results (for relcol) were very different when printed from the two machines.
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bye for now -- Keith
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dgillilan

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Re: Optimal Printing Toolset to Canon iPF6500 - Profile Builder and RIP?
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2013, 12:20:53 pm »

Hello Jack and others,
I recently received my Canon ipf 6400 and have just started the process to use it effectively. I did perform the color calibration on it first thing. I also used Keith's site to read and check out the images of setting up the printer. I also have bookmarked the wiki site for the ipf.
I am using a Datacolor Colorvision Spectrocalorimeter, which is fairly old, had it about 6 years, but it works !
I printed out two pages of patches, 225 colors, and developed a icm profile for some Epson glossy paper that I want to use up.
I will need to print some images onto it using the custom profile.
I also would appreciate all the help I can get.
I have used an Epson R3800 (17 inch, no roll and no cutting) for several years and will continue to use it for matte.
This Canon I am planning to use mainly for glossy type work.
Hope to pick up more tips on using this printer to its max,
Debra
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