I have been printing with an Epson 7800 for well over ten years. And during that time I have tried myriad papers with standard soft proof workflow in PS CS5, mostly using the Epson profiles for their papers, or canned profiles for third party media. Printer settings instruct the use of Photoshop to manage colors based on the assigned profile. I think I am doing it right. And usually the results are generally disappointing, either with color mismatch, or wacky tonality or both. Not a monitor issue, as I have a professional grade NEC screen which I calibrate on a regular basis.
After much trial and error, I have found a workflow that gives me consistently excellent results, but I do not know why. Rather than involve Photoshop in the printer driver, I use the ICM Advanced setting, with Adobe 1998 and Relative Colorimetric instructions. The printer controls the colors, and the only "profile" referenced on the main print page is the "Document," which designates "Profile ProPhoto RGB." No paper profile in sight.
Just this weekend, I printed up an image with new Hahnemuhle paper and used the canned profile. And the results were disappointing. I then went back to my old workflow, and the got dead on screen match in color and tonality. The results were even better when I recalibrated the monitor with a brightness reduced for 140 to 120.
So I can only say that this works brilliantly for me. I just do not know why. I am shooting Raw files, first doing color and tonality adjustments in LR4, with an export to CS5 for more intensive work.
Not looking to change this workflow. Just curious why it works.
Obliged.
David