Jon Cone pioneered this idea of running the gloss pigment print back through the printer a second time for a GO ( gloss optimizer coating) . Their prints done that way were the first ( over 12 years ago ) that really gave bw gloss fiber prints a perfect gelatin silver surface. It’s one thing to do that on a desktop machine ( though far from ideal ) but totally more problematic for large prints on cotton paper. I had a special 24 inch Epson set up just to apply the GO as a second run as was not happy with the concept. They have subsequently moved to a one pass method.
Problem I had was cotton dust and print scratching ruining the prints in the second pass. Does it look good, yes. Is it a pain in the ass with a high casualty rate and dragging out the time needed to do a print, yes.
I’ve been there and done that.
I understand Mark was suggesting this as a stop gap measure while one is figuring out correct media ink limit settings, but for me doing a quick spray of Premiere Art is far easier and much more durable and the Platine prints look amazing.
Given the popularity of “Baryta” type media, like Hahnemuehle, Epson, and Canson are selling so much of, and given that Platine exhibits less bronzing and gloss differential than those papers, they will figure out appropriate media settings or simply loose market share. I’m not too worried about it.
John
The main complaint I know from a user of the Canon Pro 4000 is that the Green ink removed to allow the Gloss Enhancer reduced the green saturation compared to the older models. That user still running an iPF8300 and iPF8400 as well. Monday I saw his prints of the 4000 and 8400 and he is right. I made him aware of the HP Z9+ and he is interested. Like I am but that mainly because the Z3200-PS / Windows 10 / Qimage Ultimate software upgrades give me headaches with the lost features and flawed interaction. I have to triple check things these days and can still be surprised. The Z3200-PS hardware remains good (with some odd hacks on my part) and there is ink for a year left here. Photokina is in May, if the crowned flu does not throw a spike in the wheels.
I do hope there is not a legal contract on the X-rite hardware in the Z9+ that does not allow higher numbers of patches. The actual profile creation software for the Z9+ is more likely HP's own development like it was in the Z3200s Color Center version (not the APS version). Anyone checked the content of a Z9+ custom printer profile on HP origin? I did not see a quality difference between the CC and APS printer profiles for the Z3200 so an improved CC software should be good enough. I read here in the thread that the calibration improved too. Today I am using ArgyllCMS for profile making with the Z3200-PS printed and scanned targets. Which is also excellent. Thanks to the two Marks for how to get that done. I'm using the
On printing GE only on a sheet. With Qimage Ultimate there probably is not more needed than making a printer profile with an RGB change of the whites to RGB 254 255 255, in Photoshop more channels has to be lifted 1 point. I used one of both methods to get GE on whites in an image with the GE Economic setting. However if nothing is printed in normal GE mode then I guess a 254 254 254 light grey image with a QU printer filter that lifts it to 254 255 255 will do the trick. I never saw any cyan dots appear and GE was put on the whites.
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
March 2017 update, 750+ inkjet media white spectral plots
