Hp Z9+ Profiles

[jimcamel]

I've had my Hp z9+ for 4 years and I thought I would have cleared up this question/confusion now.....but I haven't so hopefully one of you may have an answer.  This came up when almost all of my existing in-printed calibrations came up as OBSOLETE and at the same time I was exploring using BC Satin Crystaline Canvas - so I had to install some new paper presets with the printer.....here goes.....

When you introduce a new paper to the printer, you use the Paper Preset Management utility in the Hp Utility program - and you define your own paper and set is physical characteristics as best as possible - thickness, paper type, star wheels up or down, can use a cutter - and depending upon the media type you select you get it to use more Photo Ink (PK) than Matte (MK) or vice-versa.  For example if you are introducing a new 3rd party Semi-Gloss you would pick a semi-gloss type from Hp's list and tune it.

Next step is to do a Calibration run.  Here's when I am confused.  During this calibration run it prints a limited test patch chart using each of the cartridges/colors and establishes some internal settings 'for consistency'.  This produces an ICC profile file.  But the next step is to create an ICC profile for the paper - and to do this it prints a test chart of about 443 patches, automatically scans it and generates another ICC file.  Now there are 2.  I appreciate there are many skilful Printers on LL that generate much better, richer and more finally tuned ICC's for the "Z" series using  their own gear and apparently the early "Z" series had a better system for doing this with more patches - nonetheless, this is what I have.

I print using Lightroom Classic (LrC) and so I always set LrC to use the second ICC profile.

When I create the actual profile using the 2nd step, I am careful to modify/set the filename so I can distinguish it from the file produced in the first step.  There are then always 2 such 'ICC' files in my system and I setup LrC's print module to only list the one for me produced in the second step.

I have run both files through MAC OS ColorSync utility to graph them - and they are 'similar' although I have no way to determine if the latter one is more detailed, finer or whatever....I suppose it is.

I have never really understood nor have I been able to get an answer as to exactly what is in the first profile.

So, perhaps somebody can shed some light on this.

MacOs Ventura 13.4, Mac M1 Ultra/64gb/2TB
Hp Z9+, 44"

thanks, jc

[kers]

Calibration is to get the printer in a known state.
It has to be done every month or so or when you change inks- printheads
It does not produce an icc profile.

After that it is ready to make an icc profile. Scanning the 443 patches.

[deanwork]

Right. The first set of patches is a linearization of the inks for that media. They should call it that but they call it a calibration. The second set of patches generates the icc profile for color balance . They call that profiling. This is a great feature because it is a superior method to separate the calibration for specific media separately from the icc profile measurement. They were smart to do that.

Anyway, they suggest you do a “ calibration” every time you change printheads or a new batch of paper. At any rate, the software will show when the calibration is “ obsolete “ meaning you do a new one.

The actual icc profile can last for years, you don’t need to constantly update your profiles unless there is some drastic reformulation in the media’s quality, which never happens with the premium papers and canvas.

The problem we had with the design of the Z9 is they didn’t make the icc profile patch large enough for professional work. And they dumbed down the i1 software so you can no longer  set the number of patches
To 1750 and larger, or customize the ink limits for custom media.

If they did that they would probably actually start selling this printer because the dual drop tech actually works otherwise.

John

Calibration is to get the printer in a known state.
It has to be done every month or do or when you change inks- printheads
It does not produce an icc profile.

After that it is ready to make an icc profile. Scanning the 443 patches.

[jimcamel]

John, finally a clear explanation.  'Linearization' .... makes it much clearer.....thanks for that - and it makes sense.

They could also have made it clearer in the filenames they generate - because it is easy to mix these up and actually use the result of the linearization as a profile.  At last I've been careful about that.

cheers, jc

[neil snape]

Paper calibrations have a limited time, and any firmware updates render all calibrations nul. Yet contrary to what is said above a calibration produces a base profile for the printer in a default state from the calibration. The printer needs this for a a tagged (specified color conversions) or non tagged. This is very useful for printing from many types of print sources as many users have no clue how to color manage images.

The embedded i1 created profiles done after a calibration should be a much higher quality, and repeatable after doing a calibration (linearisation) without re-profiling.

My Z9's never produced a good profile from the embedded i1. I had to do custom papers by hand, boring and tedious. Recently I loaded some 36" HP satin and the calibration profile was close enough being somewhat acceptable. I haven't tried the embedded i1 on this paper, perhaps it will actually work!

I do think the king of printers was the Z3200. The Z9 is efficient fast, and made for production, but it is not user friendly for customisations.