Finding neutral gray

[Bill Jaynes]

Hello,
New here. I printed color C prints for several years and still have that sense of correcting color through C Y M adjustments. Have tried to understand profiles but am not getting it and am content to adjust my 2200 in the advanced panel.
Lately I printed a contact sheet of gray scale images from my camera. The printer was still set to print "color" and they came out with a definite cyan bias. I occurred to me that I could tweak the color settings until it printed gray and maybe have learned something about getting the printer to print neutral gray.
Does that sound useful to anyone?
Thanks,
Bill

[rdonson]

Hello, Bill.

If you're trying to print b&w on a 2200 I recommend Quadtone RIP.  It's very reasonably priced and produces great results.

Quadtone RIP

[Dale_Cotton]

nd am content to adjust my 2200 in the advanced panel

Based on my years of struggle with a 2200, the problem with that approach is that any change you make is applied equally across all Zones. But any colour cast you're trying to correct is unlikely to appear equally strong across all Zones. There may be a cyan cast in the shadows but a green cast in the mid tones and a magenta cast in the highlights.

[Bill Jaynes]

Thanks Dale,
I was hoping there was some way to map color correction ideas from wet to dry.
Bill

Based on my years of struggle with a 2200, the problem with that approach is that any change you make is applied equally across all Zones. But any colour cast you're trying to correct is unlikely to appear equally strong across all Zones. There may be a cyan cast in the shadows but a green cast in the mid tones and a magenta cast in the highlights.
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[John Moody]

Thanks Dale,
I was hoping there was some way to map color correction ideas from wet to dry.
Bill
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What Dale politely said is, "the 2200 Epson driver is incapable of being adjusted to neutral gray".  Quadtone fixes this by only using the black and light color inks.

I second the Quadtone RIP suggestion.  You can try before you buy.

[Jonathan Wienke]

I was hoping there was some way to map color correction ideas from wet to dry.

There is. It's called a profile. All you need to do is let the print dry thoroughly, like at least 24 hours, and then measure the patch print with a decent spectrophotometer like the Gretag-Macbeth Eye-One. The resulting profile will give you nicely neutral grays even with the standard color inkset. If you aren't familiar with making pronter profiles, contact a profiling service and follow their instructions. Don't waste your time trying to make color corrections with the printer settings.

[rdonson]

Jonathan, since the 2200 doesn't receive a factory calibration will a custom profile really suffice for printing neutral b&w??

[David Good]

As Jonathan said "don't bother trying to make color corrections with the printer settings". You will likely have to buy a custom profile or an optional printer driver such as ImagePrint or Quadtone. Before you shell out for a RIP you should look at the new line of printers with the K3's. They produce richer blacks and offer the Advanced B&W driver, although I still prefer ImagePrint on my little 2400.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

For BW I prefer Quadtone (on my Epson 2200), even though I use Imageprint for color. I seem to get good, consistent results, so I expect that a good profile for the 2200 would do just fine, as long as you have already decided what paper you want to print on.

[colourperfect]

A custom printer profile will significantly reduce the tints in a B+W image. I would recommend a large profile (1700+ patches) as this means more of the patches are neutral or near neutral.

Generally most 2100 / 2200 are not very linear in their native form which makes profiling more of a challenge. However the larger number of patches and careful choice of driver settings (paper type and ink %) can deliver profiles with acceptable performance.

Ian

http://profiles.colourperfect.co.uk

Jonathan, since the 2200 doesn't receive a factory calibration will a custom profile really suffice for printing neutral b&w??
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[Jonathan Wienke]

Jonathan, since the 2200 doesn't receive a factory calibration will a custom profile really suffice for printing neutral b&w??
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Yes, I've successfully printed neutral B&W with the Canon S9000, the Epson R1800, and the Epson 785EPX, none of which are factory calibrated.