I recently created an ICC profile with my HPZ3200 for RRP Aurora Natural 300gsm. I made some prints about 3 weeks ago and today went to re-print the same image and it is coming out more saturated than the ones I printed before. If I am making a mistake I don't know what it is. I am printing from Qimage and set the media type, the setting at the printer and the ICC profile to the same settings as the previous prints. I know that many people are extremely happy with the HPZ series printers, so I am not sure what is going on with mine. I seem to be able to get repeatable results from Epson P900 so I am at a loss with the HPZ. Any suggestions? I posted this question over at the DP review site (https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/67744467) and it seems that Qimage Ultimate is not communicating properly with the HPZ printer driver. When I make changes via Qimage it does not seem to populate to the actual printer driver in W11. Many people are successfully using this printer so I am wondering where I am going wrong. I need to be able to add the print file name and path location to the paper print. Qimage does this wonderfully but it seems that my ICC information is not always making it to the print driver. If I have to change printing programs I will, but I need to be able to define the file name and path. I have a wonderfully smooth and repeatable workflow with my Epson P900. Not so at all with the HPZ3200. Can someone please help me get this sorted out?
You got my message with advice in the DPreview forum on a similar request. Maybe there still is another problem with your setup. Did you change the HP printer driver default to what I recommended? So for Color the Application manages color choice is set?
Let's start with the creation of the ICC profile. You used HP Printer Utility for that I guess. A new custom paper type created for that paper. Calibrated that paper. Printed the target, measured it. Saved the measurements on the computer and the ICC profile on the printer and the computer. Bound that profile to the custom paper type you made for RRP Aurora. Synchronised papers etc so your computer has the profile stored and the driver has that paper type as well. I am not so sure of the order of actions that is used, just using my memory here. Windows will save it at the usual place in System. Qimage Ultimate will store that profile in its map in Programs 86 as well if it has used it once in a job. The IC Profile is not lost, the custom Paper Type is not lost.
Four ways it could have gone wrong, in order of most likely:
There is something about the "more saturated than the ones I printed before" I worry about. My gut feeling is that double profiling happened in the 3 weeks ago prints and by that less saturated prints rolled off your printer. For example you had color management on in QU and Printer managed color on in the driver. I doubt double profiling now would deliver more saturated color so it has to be the other way around.
The second possibility is that different Paper Types are used now and then. As I have written before QU's interaction with the HP drivers can not be trusted. Never set real HP printer driver settings in QU but Shift/Click the Properties button to get the default HP driver settings and build the settings there, QU's menu will then obey to the higher command.
The third possibility is that you used Perceptual rendering three weeks ago and Relative or Absolute Colormetric rendering now and the image gamut is big enough to have an impact on these choices.
If you did not have an assigned color space profile in the image files then QU assumes it to be sRGB. If you used profile assigned files the next time or the other way around you could have created the problem as well.
In the QU log file of three weeks ago you can read which profile is used by QU and see the used rendering as well. You can not see what paper type setting was used (though it should be described in the file but isn't shown) or whether both the driver and QU did color management (also hidden). I think I asked Mike Chaney to show more of the log file text so HP users can at least read what was done before and set the required driver settings manually next time.
If you let the log file reset the conditions of three weeks ago then you can only trust in the QU menu the typical QU settings needed for QU like the QU color management on, the profile used there and the renderings, resolution setting, the resampling routine, sharpening degree etc. For some reason not even the paper type shown is reliable, an added custom Paper Type seems to shift the internal HP order of Paper Types so another Paper Type may appear. Click open the Properties menu and check what corresponds in both applications and what not after a job recall action.
I am aware that it is quite ridiculous to use Qimage Ultimate for HP printers. Around 2018 Mike decided to give QU more interaction with the printer drivers and I protested, appealed, sought compromises, to keep the old menu system for at least the HP drivers. To little avail, I got the Shift/Click function on Properties and had to be happy with that. QU's other features improved and I had a lot of experience and a lot of log files so throwing out this app was not wise for me. A failed print is still possible though even with my experience to deal with the circumstances.
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
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