Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: vanderloo on April 09, 2017, 06:35:08 pm
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I'm not finding an exact match for the best ICC profile for my Stylus Pro 4800 and Epson Exhibition Fiber paper.
Using ultra chrome K3 ink
Can someone give me some guidance on this.
Thank You
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For anyone searching for this answer, Epson tech support recommends the ultra premium luster profile and media setting.
Carry on.
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Hmm, I'd think something more like Epson Premium Glossy, or Ilford Smooth Gloss, would be a closer match. Exhibition Fiber is an incredibly bright, white paper. Luster-finished resin coated papers tend not to be as bright or white as smooth, high gloss papers with a extreme load of optical brighteners in them, which Exhibition Fiber certainly is. I haven't looked at Premium Luster in a long time, but I believe Ilford Smooth Pearl is fairly equivalent. Next to Ilford Gloss, Ilford Pearl looks rather grey and washed out.
Have a look at Ernst Dinkla's SpectrumViz tool. It does require a Java installation to run, but within it you'll find a ton of spectral plots of all kind of papers. Spectrum isn't the sole consideration when looking for paper equivalencies, but it is a big one.
http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
If you bring up the Exhibition Fiber spectral curve, you can overlay various other papers on it and see which ones match more or less closely. I just tried the exercise, and it looks like Ilford Smooth Gloss is the closest match to Exhibition Fiber, out of the several resin coated papers that I tried overlaying. Some other fiber papers are even closer, for example Innova Fiba Print White Gloss or Moab Colorado Fiber Gloss.
So it becomes an exercise in finding a closely matching paper for which the manufacturer provides a good profile for the Epson 4800.
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Royce,
I got 2 recommendations from 2 different tech reps at Epson. One being- use the ultra premium photo paper luster media type setting in the printer preferences.
The other recommended premium glossy photo paper 250 for use with Epson Exhibition fiber paper.
I'm going to try your experiment and see what I come up with. Thanks Again for your help
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I believe Epson had Pixel Genius make profiles for the new paper when it was introduced - memory is vague but I believe Andrew Rodney produced them. You can download a profile specific to the Epson 4800 for Exhibition Fiber here. (http://pixelgenius.com/epson/). Have your tried it?
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That's awesome Wayne. Thank You.
If you're familiar with the stylus pro 4800 settings, and you want to manage color in lightroom using this cool new EFP profile, what option would you choose in media type in the printer. My guess would be Ultra Premium photo paper luster? Any advice there?
Thank You
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I'd personally use the Premium Gloss media type. Exhibition Fiber is a smooth-finished high gloss paper, so I'd use a smooth-finished high gloss media type. Having said that, there may be little or no difference between the Premium Glossy and Premium Luster media types, so luster is probably not a bad choice.
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That's awesome Wayne. Thank You.
If you're familiar with the stylus pro 4800 settings, and you want to manage color in lightroom using this cool new EFP profile, what option would you choose in media type in the printer. My guess would be Ultra Premium photo paper luster? Any advice there?
Thank You
There are two aspects to the media type that are important. It sets the "ink load", so it's critical to use the same media type that was used when the profile was made for that aspect. All good profile providers will tell you what media type to use because they know it must be the same as when the profile was printed. On the linked page you will find the instructions, I've copied and pasted them below ...
"The Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper is intended to be used with the "Photo Black" ink of the Epson UltraChrome K3 Ink™ or UltraChrome K3 Ink™ with Vivid Magenta ink sets. Under the Media Type, you should choose "Premium Luster Photo Paper" or "Premium Luster Photo Paper (260)" depending on your printer. For 3800/4800/4880 printers, you can load paper in the top feed (regular feed path) but with single sheets only. Loading more than one sheet at a time will result in mis-feeds. For Epson Stylus® Photo R2400 Printers you must load single sheets of Exhibition Fiber Paper through the rear Single Sheet Guide. For additional information on using the rear Single Sheet Guide path see your user guide or visit the R2400 product page.
The Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper is a premium photographic printing paper that requires some extra care when handling. Do not drag corners of the paper over underlying paper. Not unlike traditional silver-gelatin papers the surface can be scratched and is prone to finger prints–the use of cotton gloves or handling by the edges only is suggested."
So Premium Luster is the correct media type. this means that was setting that was used when the targets were printed.
The other aspect of the media type has to do with paper thickness and other similar settings. Exhibition Fiber is a fragile surface, and it's thicker than Luster. I think it's 13 mil so I would try a setting of 4mm instead of the default 3 that's in the luster media type, and you may want to use a wider platen gap. The platen gap will be more critical if printing on rolls, on sheets, an auto gap setting will probably be OK. If you are seeing some issues with head strikes or just some small scratching, you could try going to 5mm and/or widening the gap.
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Got it. Thanks Wayne. I had the platen gap set to wider for single sheets but I'll experiment on that. Everything else seems to be resolved on the settings.
Thank You
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Would the most likely reason that my deepest shadows in my prints are heavy in black ink be the ICC profile?
I used the pixel genius profile for my printer and Epson Exhibition fiber paper.
I should say that not all of my prints have been bad. Most of the black and whites are pretty clean but one color photo I printed of a mountain landscape it really blotchy in the dark shadows.
You can only see it at a hard angle view of the print.
I'm using pk black (brand new cartridge), and the media type in the printer is set to premium luster photo paper 260. Ran a nozzle check and head cleaning, (x3), until the print was clean.
I was going to try ultra premium photo paper luster next but I thought i would get some input here as to whether I'm heading in the right direction.
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I have both the 4800 and 9800 Epson printers. Though older printers mine have worked flawlessly. All Epson's need to be used continually to function over time.
Always found Bill Atkinson's 9800 ICC profiles the best for both printers. Incredible color and neutrality.
Don't think Bill has them available for download online anymore. You might want to email Bill. Great guy who is
very supportive of all in the photography community.
Found the 9800 profiles worked well with the 4800 also. His creation of these profiles all those years ago a
revelation in precise color managed workflow.
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If you want to be a scientist then fine but if you want to print accurately with the "best" profile then just get a custom profile made for your printer and paper and move on. Probably cheaper if you value your time. It is the only way you will ever get an "exact match" as all printers are different straight off the production line.
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Would the most likely reason that my deepest shadows in my prints are heavy in black ink be the ICC profile?
I used the pixel genius profile for my printer and Epson Exhibition fiber paper.
I should say that not all of my prints have been bad. Most of the black and whites are pretty clean but one color photo I printed of a mountain landscape it really blotchy in the dark shadows.
You can only see it at a hard angle view of the print.
I'm using pk black (brand new cartridge), and the media type in the printer is set to premium luster photo paper 260. Ran a nozzle check and head cleaning, (x3), until the print was clean.
I was going to try ultra premium photo paper luster next but I thought i would get some input here as to whether I'm heading in the right direction.
could be you just need to lift the shadows in that image. One of the biggest challenges in screen to print match is seeing the same detail in the darkest 5 to 10% of the tones. easy for those tones to appear blocked up unless you pump a lot of light onto the print.
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No cheaper icc profile than free and Bill Atkinson's profiles are by far the most accurate and free of all for the
Epson 9800 printer. Scientist. Right. You are. No.
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No cheaper icc profile than free and Bill Atkinson's profiles are by far the most accurate and free of all for the
Epson 9800 printer. Scientist. Right. You are. No.
Believe whatever you believe. Just trying to help the "newbie".
There is no such thing as an accurate profile for your printer if it was made for someone else's printer, (especially if it was made for a 9800).