Recalibrating an iPF8300

[Malcolm Payne]

I need to replace the right head on my iPF8300 that failed last week and recalibrate the printer. The original calibration media supplied with the printer was Canon Heavyweight Coated Paper, for which the part no. is 6646A008AA for a 17" roll. According to Google, this media appears to be readily available in the US and elsewhere but I have been unable to find a UK supplier. I've also spoken directly to Canon UK and they do not currently list this part no., only the "Matte Coated Paper" at similar weight (140gsm) which Canon's media table advises is not compatible with the calibration process. Unfortunately the operator I spoke to this morning was clearly not technical, so I was unable to explore further options with her.

Does anyone know of a UK supplier for this specific media? I know there are other Canon papers that can be used for calibration, but presumably using a different paper from the original will change the calibration, requiring me to redo all the profiles for best colour accuracy? Any advice from anyone with the same issue would be greatly appreciated. Fortunately I have no outstanding orders at present, but need to get the printer up and running again ASAP.

Many thanks.

[Richard.Wills]

Bizarrely, that paper is not recommended for calibration, only for the initial set up and head alignment.
Something like the canon Semigloss photo hg255 is needed (According to my dealer and Velmex, one of the UK support companies).

We initially set up our old 8300 (and new 8400, three years later) using the matt paper, thinking it would work, but fairly quickly discovered the printer software rejected it as a calibration material, when it came to changing heads.

However, having then calibrated the printers using the semi gloss, we didn't see any noticeable change in output or profiles, though to be safe, we did reprofile all media.

[bill t.]

I have an old roll of 10 mil, Epson Enhanced Matte paper that I use for calibrations.  Has never been rejected or failed a calibration.  I think the main issue is that the profiling media has to be smooth and sharp printing.  I occasionally check registration with a magnifier on actual photos on thicker media, have never seen any registration issues after changing and calibrating heads.

In regard to profiles, I superstitiously think it's best not to get too attached to profiles made when one or more of the heads is very high mileage.  I suspect the differences in profile efficacy before and after head changes is no more than the difference between different batches of the same media.  In any case the well equipped inkjet jockey is advised to have a profiling system in place.

[deanwork]

I am wondering if the Canson ( not Canon ) Photosatin Premium RC would work well for calibration? I don't really want to buy any more Canon media that I'm not going to use and I always have some of the Canson around.

I was told initially by Canon to use their HW Matte or whatever it is called. Then the tech who came over here told me he always uses the Canon gloss rc media.

john

[Richard.Wills]

The paper we use is an Impresoria lustre, similar (from memory - at home now) to the photosatin premium RC. This came from our dealers, who are Ex-Canon UK. I believe the key was a non matt RC paper, and once one is picked, to stick to it.

When we got our 8400 (late summer '14), I spent a lonnng weekend profiling all the papers. It was only in early Autumn that I realised that we hadn't done the (non matte) calibration. Set the printer to run calibration on the RC paper, then had moment of GREAT FEAR that the profiles would be "worthless". Ran all our standard target prints (On_sight, NorthLight etc) using "old profiles", after calibration. Could not see any visual mismatch.

In the interests of paranoia, did re-profile all media (by hand - 2033 chart on profiler 1.5 I1Pro...). Profiles look as near as damn the same.

I believe the trick (stand on one (left) leg, facing south by south west, whistling the international (or whichever tune will make your colleagues "happy")) is to calibrate with one media and stick by it through the seasons, and through the changing print heads.

By running calibrations at the start of service, and then when changes (hardware or environmental) happen, profiles produced in a known good condition are carried over to the new conditions.

[bill t.]

The after-head-change alignment is a mechanical thing, where the printer sets it internal timing to compensate for the exact positions of nozzles on the heads as inserted.  Although the printouts created during the alignment process are colorful, the 8xxx sensor is color blind and all it sees is the position of dots on the paper, and whether or not ink drops are leaving the heads.  No evaluation of the actual color being deposited is made, only the presence or absence of deposited ink is measured.  It would take a severe misalignment to distort colors visually.

What more directly affects color is changes in the feed characteristics when media thickness changes.  That's handled by the Media Configuration Tool.  If the feed rate is wrong, you get more or less ink density in any one spot, which makes the deposited color either darker or lighter.  I recently noticed that when new batches of Silver Rag came through a few mils thinner than previous batches, overall print density increased a bit.  Re-running the Media Configuration Tool for that media seemed to lighten things up to where they were before.

Of course persons working in southern hemisphere have some advantage in all this because they can load their paper in a counter-clockwise feed direction as viewed from the control panel.  Counteracts Coriolis effects in ways not available to northern hemisphere users.

[Malcolm Payne]

Thanks, all, for your helpful comments and suggestions.

Richard: As you rightly say, it's bizarre that the HW Coated paper is supplied with the printer but isn't recommended for calibration; though it's listed as 'compatible' for that purpose in the manual under the colour calibration section and the printer hasn't objected to its use on previous head replacements/calibrations. I wonder if the compatibility changed with a later firmware update?

Bill: Thanks for your endorsement of Epson Enhanced Matte, as I usually have a roll of that here for occasional cheap 'throwaway' prints and I don't really want to have to buy additional Canon media solely for calibration purposes, especially if the cheaper variants such as the HW Coated are no longer available or suitable. Just to be quite clear, I'm talking here about the calibration process for returning the printer to a known baseline, rather than the post-installation mechanical registration and alignment of the heads.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that the calibration process actually reads density rather than colour, though I can't now locate the reference. Presumably then, the colour response of the paper used for calibration is not critical, though I assume differences in dmax could affect the calibration to a greater degree in that case? I wasn't looking forward to having to redo all the profiles if I changed the calibration media, but Richard's experience suggests that is less of an issue than I'd feared.
 
The intention was always to stick to a known single paper for calibration from the start to avoid introducing additional variables, but Canon UK seems to have made that impossible. Apart from the Epson Enhanced Matte, I also have Epson Photo Grade Semi-Gloss Paper and Premium Semi-Gloss Photo Paper (250) available, as well as a smaller quantity of their Premium Glossy Photo Paper (250), if any of those are likely to be better options. The latter two are RC papers, I believe. Any further thoughts as to which might be the most suitable - it sounds as if the concensus may be leaning towards the Premium SG Photo (250), though I wonder if the Enh. Matte might be a closer match to the original Canon HW Coated?

Many thanks again.