Ok, so I purchased a Canon Prograf Pro-1000 a short while ago and have been producing some nice prints using custom ICC profiles generated by my paper manufacturer - Fotospeed - after printing and supplying them with a test sheets.
But I'm now starting to question and doubt what I'm doing and could do with some guidance please :-)
Let me start by saying I didn't specify any particular media type before printing the test sheets referenced above. But I now see that the process of creating a custom media type does an alignment check, a self-colour calibration and allows a custom ICC profile to be specified. I didn't do any of this before printing the test sheets for Fotospeed and I am wondering whether I should have?
But do I need to create custom media types at all? I wish to let my software, Capture One v12, control the colour through my provision of a custom ICC profile not the printer and I can specify paper sizes at print time too. So, if I don't create custom media types can I just ignore the media type selection? If so, how does the printer know things such as how high to keep the head above the paper? Does it perhaps work that out automatically?
In summary, do I need to worry about the selection of media types and if I do, should I be creating a custom media type for each type and size of paper? Or can I just let the software do its thing and control the colour?
Apologies if this is a bit messy - I'm conscious that media types and colour management are intertwined...
Thanks,
Andrew