Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta ICC any HP Z3200 users?

[Mc]

I have been trying to compare the color gamut between the HP Z3200 and the Epson 7900 & 7880. Till now I have only been able to evaluate the two Epson printers' gamut by downloading the ICC profliles for the Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta from Hahnemühle Internet site. The ICC profiles for the z3200 are also free to download however they are embedded in a proprietary format (OMS) which cannot be "opened" unless one already owns the printer (I have already tried installing the HP printing utility to no avail).

I would appreciate it if someone having the Z3200 could download the canned profile for the Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta and send the ICC to me  (it's important  for me to use the canned profile so as not to bias the test since the other two printers will be tested using the canned profile as well).

Here is the direct link to the profile  http://www.hahnemuehle.com/media/HFA_HPZ3200_FABaryta.zip
Also, If anyone knows which is the OEM HP paper with the highest gamut and D-dmax and has the ICC profile I would love to try that too...


Thank you in advance to anyone who will take the time to help me out, I will send you my e-mail via MP

Cheers,

Man

[Scott Martin]

The only way you can get a fair printer-to-printer comparison is if you profile each of them on the same paper with the exact same profiling procedure and device. I did this on the z3200, 9900 and Canon 8300 using Canson's Baryta (and several others) and have included gamut mapping screen grabs in the x300 printer review: http://www.on-sight.com/2010/04/25/canon-x300-printer-review/  There are also some gloss differential and scratch resistance tests you might find interesting.

Alternatively you might want to compare the quality of the canned profiles themselves with each printer. To do this you must print an evaluation image on each printer using the canned profiles and visually compare them. Looking at the gamut maps will not give you the full story (to say the least) and could be a lot more misleading that you might think.

[Mc]

Scott, thank you for all you suggestions I appreciate it.

I agree with you regarding the superficiality of comparing printers just by the numbers and I am aware of the limitations, unfortunately I don't have access to all the printers I would like to try right now and even though I do have a few test prints, due to the constraints I had when printing them I can just evaluate gloss differential and bronzing but not gamut.

I was actually interested in testing how the Z3200 and  the 7900 would "behave" when soft proofing some of my trickiest photographs using canned profiles made by a third party paper manufacturer like hahnemuhle and  also see how each  printer performed when comparing the "highest gamut" OEM papers from HP and Epson. I noticed that in you article you mentioned being really happy about the dark magenta and purples that Canon printers produce. I, on the other hand, am very interested in dark browns, yellows and greens and was hoping that soft proofing despite not being as accurate as an hard proof could lead me into the right direction, hence I needed the ICCs.

btw, I read your review and it was quite interesting, I especially enjoyed the comparison between the three major brands. I hardly take into consideration Canon printers these days and I might well be missing on something...


As I mentioned at the beginning of this thread if anyone owns a Z3200 printer and already has or can download the ICC profiles I mentioned I would appreciate it if they lent me a hand.


Cheers,
Man

[Scott Martin]

If it's the dark, rich saturated colors that you seek, the z3200 isn't as strong as the x300 or x900 printers for sure. But perhaps you should focus your attention on acquiring the very best profiles with excellent perceptual rendering as that's what 's so important for accessing those tones. Take the same printer and paper, for example, and profile it with several different profiling packages and make evaluation prints with all of your new profiles with at least Perceptual and Relative Colorimetric. You'll find that some profiles do a far better job at exploiting those deep saturated colors.

[Mc]

that sounds like very sound advice, I will definitely add that procedure to my workflow. Is it just a matter of trying several profiling packages and evaluate the results or is there a specific application which is renowned for producing better profiles in that area of the gamut? Profile Maker VS Monaco Profilers may be the new i1Profiler?

[Scott Martin]

... is there a specific application which is renowned for producing better profiles in that area of the gamut? Profile Maker VS Monaco Profilers may be the new i1Profiler?

In my opinion, Monaco Profiler and it's newly announced successor are the clear winners there, with their exceptional perceptual rendering characteristics.