Best to expect from Walmart Fuji Frontier DL600 print without color management?

[Tim Lookingbill]

I've gotten back into printing 8x10's after the heads on my Epson "All In One" started printing streaks. Didn't want to dump even more ink to do another head alignment and cleaning so I opted for 8x10's at $3 each on Walmart's Fuji Frontier DL600 inkjet dry lab. I was surprised by the quality just printing in sRGB with Auto Enhance turned off and wondered if others have experienced the same with similar brick & mortar photo labs in places like Costco or Walmart.

I also discovered something quite odd about the Fuji Frontier inks on their matte paper and how they looked under Walmart overhead fluorescent tube lighting that made these prints on first inspection look WAY OFF than what I'm used to under similar lights in my home. They were way too desaturated with heavy cyan hued tint of blue, but when I viewed them over in the bakery section under warmer looking fluorescent tube lighting they look pretty close to my GE/Philips daylight balanced lighting shown in the picture below.

What makes this odd is that the commercial press printed magazines on the rack nearby didn't exhibit this overly blue appearance. The colors looked correct so it got me to thinking and asking if anyone here has found a study and/or noticed certain inkjet inks vs commercial press inks react to fluorescent light differently. I have to say in this case the one thing that destroyed screen to print matching was not printing in sRGB but the lights the prints were viewed under.

[mouse]

I have to say in this case the one thing that destroyed screen to print matching was not printing in sRGB but the lights the prints were viewed under.

Andrew Rodney has been trying to emphasize this point for years. 

[Tim Lookingbill]

I'm more curious of someone as knowledgeable as Andrew to explain the differences in spectral reflectance between the Fuji inkjet inks vs the commercial press inks of the magazines. The differences were way off the charts under those fluorescent tubes than anything I've seen in my 15 years understanding and using color management.

[Wolfman]

I have had excellent results from Costco prints with the profile for that particular Costco's printer (Fuji Frontier 590, Fuji Crystal Archive Paper ) embedded and auto adjust cancelled.

[Tim Lookingbill]

I have had excellent results from Costco prints with the profile for that particular Costco's printer (Fuji Frontier 590, Fuji Crystal Archive Paper ) embedded and auto adjust cancelled.

Thanks for the response, Wolfman.

Was that a custom profile that you had made or did you download it off Costco's site? Was there a setting in addition to turning Auto Correct off in the kiosk that allowed choosing a profile over just sRGB which is what I had to use with the Dry Lab Frontier. But that setting wasn't accessed through the customer interface kiosk next to turning "Auto Enhance" off, but by the lab technician's accessing the printer's display screen where he indicated it was set to sRGB.

[Wolfman]

I got the profile from Dry Creek: https://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/  I edited the files by changing the adobe rib profile to the Costco profile.

I made sure I alerted Costco to not do any automation in the dialog on their site when ordering.

[Wolfman]

Sorry, I meant Adobe RGB profile, not rib.

[Tim Lookingbill]

Thanks, Wolfman.

[spclark]

I'm more curious of someone as knowledgeable as Andrew to explain the differences in spectral reflectance between the Fuji inkjet inks vs the commercial press inks of the magazines.

I can't claim to be as knowledgeable as Andrew but if you stop for a moment to consider the different demands of commercial web printing (on paper, in long rolls, run on a printing press) with CMYK pigments in an ink vehicle (carrier) and how color inkjet materials (combination of dyes and pigments, depending on which brand and printer technology) are formulated, you ought to appreciate the vast differences in how the final products will compare under various types of lighting.

If you haven't already, Google <metamerism> for a perspective on what's going on when you take samples of both kind of printing & view them under different kinds of lighting.

There's so much going on between the papers used, the pigments (here referring to both kinds of printing) applied, and the spectral characteristics of the light not only falling upon the samples but also what gets reflected back to your eyes... then imaged on your retinas... then processed by the visual perception area of your brain... it's amazing to me how what we call 'color' gets understood at all.

[Tim Lookingbill]

I can't claim to be as knowledgeable as Andrew but if you stop for a moment to consider the different demands of commercial web printing (on paper, in long rolls, run on a printing press) with CMYK pigments in an ink vehicle (carrier) and how color inkjet materials (combination of dyes and pigments, depending on which brand and printer technology) are formulated, you ought to appreciate the vast differences in how the final products will compare under various types of lighting.

If you haven't already, Google <metamerism> for a perspective on what's going on when you take samples of both kind of printing & view them under different kinds of lighting.

There's so much going on between the papers used, the pigments (here referring to both kinds of printing) applied, and the spectral characteristics of the light not only falling upon the samples but also what gets reflected back to your eyes... then imaged on your retinas... then processed by the visual perception area of your brain... it's amazing to me how what we call 'color' gets understood at all.

I did consider metamerism as the issue and I also considered the rather larger gamut of the cyan ink used in the Fuji Frontier which extends beyond AdobeRGB that might have contributed to fluorescing of that ink under those particular flotubes. I've got glossy prints of intense green leaves off the Frontier at a Walgreens one hour photo that fluoresce under my green spiky daylight flotubes but not under actual outdoor sunlight.

I was thinking of asking about this on commercial press printer forums. Just hadn't gotten around to it.

But thanks for your input.