Mark,
What Epson paper did you use as your 'basis' for that PR Satin/P600 profile ?
And would you say the same/similar PK performance is applicable to the 3880 inkset?
I used the Epson Premium Luster setting, also, 5760dpi, high speed off, and in the advance media setting I chose platten = wide, and thickness = 5. These setting are by defuault at platten = standard, and thickness = 3 for the thinner Premium luster paper. My profiles were generated with PM5 software.
I actually went through two complete rounds of profiling making, building both a custom MK profile using the HN recommended VFA as the setting, then the PK version using the settings noted above. First, although anything over 1440dpi is generally considered overkill for fine art media (and hence Hahnemuhle profiled to that setting) I determined that the 5760dpi setting does indeed edge out the 1440dpi setting in terms of sharpness albeit at a sacrificed production speed, but for me, quality is paramount, so I accept the slower output speed tradeoff with the higher quality output. The P600 does not have a 2880 dpi setting like the P800 so I couldn't try an "intermediate" setting, and conversely, I don't believe the P800 supports 5760dpi, but my guess is for P800 owners, they may also find improvement in sharpness by going for the P800 higher 2880dpi setting with fine art matt papers.
L*min ( i.e Dmax values expressed in L* units rather than density) were quite interesting. They are as follows
MK ink, no additional coating: Lmin = 16.0
MK ink, post coated with two light coats Premier Print shield: Lmin = 18.1 (note with MK ink the coating increased the Lmin
)
PK ink, no additional coating: Lmin = 19.0
PK ink, post coated with two light coats Premier Print shield: Lmin = 14.9 (note with PK ink, the coating reduced Lmin to better than uncoated MK
)
Also, although I'd have to go through past notes to confirm my recollection, I seem to recall the Epson 3880 delivered an MK black result at L*minimum of approximately 18-19 with this paper, so the P600 MK is superior going just by the numbers, and the UCHD PK is darn close to the K3VM MK's performance on this paper. IMHO, the 0/45 geometry of the spectrophotometer doesn't always give us a perfect visual correlation with how we observe maximum black richness on these fine art inkjet media, so just looking at the results of prints made on the P600 using this paper and with no additional overcoat, for me, the custom profile I made using the PK ink and the Premium plus luster setting was overall superior despite the dmax being slightly inferior if going solely by the instrument numbers. And if those numbers are to be totally believed then post coating the PK printed version with two light coats of Premier Print Shield becomes the ultimate quality winner for this HN Photo Satin paper and the new Epson UCHD ink set.
best,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com