Soft Proofing for Canvas

[solardarkroom.com]

I'd like to try printing on Canvas and it looks like I'll need someone to do it for me as I can't find media for my Epson R1900 13" printer. I found an online printer that offered an ICC for their EPSON Stylus Pro 9880 Printers and Daguerre Hahnemuhle Canvas. My concern is that when I turned on Soft Proofing in PS I was shocked by how washed out it looked. I use the method featured in the LL Camera to Print tutorial for soft proofing and it's always worked well and taken little time. With the above mentioned profile I could not for the life of me get a decent looking match. Am I missing something? Should I just surrender and hope they do a good job? My personal experience with online printers indicates about a 65% chance I won't be satisfied with the tone and color of the print.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

David

[Iliah]

Can you provide the link to the profile in question?

[terrywyse]

There's probably a better than even chance that their profile represents UNcoated canvas. IOW, they created the profile prior to spray or roll coating the canvas. I my own experience, using an aqueous coating will raise the Dmax at least +.20-.30 (density) so profiling should be performed AFTER the coating is applied, not only to make a good profile but also to give you a profile better suited for soft-proofing without the drastic reduction in Dmax.

If you have any contact person there, ask them if their profile represents with or without coating.

Terry

[solardarkroom.com]

Here's the link to the ICC profile:

http://www.canadaoncanvas.com/icc/EPSON%20Stylus%20Pro%209880__Daguerre_Hahnemuhle_canvas_icc.icm

from the site:

http://www.losangelesoncanvas.com/

Thanks!

[solardarkroom.com]

Thank you! I will call them and ask.

David

[Iliah]

This profile won't allow softproofing to be accurate, and it has black point at L=27. Normally this paper has black point (measured) as L=20. However gamut estimation with this profile is fairly correct. I think Terry is right and the measurements were taken before coating. I would do the soft-proofing with the profile from Hahnemühle web site.

[terrywyse]

This profile won't allow softproofing to be accurate, and it has black point at L=27. Normally this paper has black point (measured) as L=20.

I think you nailed it.......I was just looking a PDF I put together some months back showing results using Breathing Color's Lyve Canvas (different, I know, but the results are comparable). I'd also comment that an L*=27 sounds like uncoated PhotoK ink, not MatteK ink. If you're not coating, MatteK is almost a must...if you're coating with a satin or gloss finish, you can definitely get away with using PhotoK ink. My numbers below are from using Timeless Satin coating.

Here's some numbers I had from my Lyve Canvas profiles:

Epson 9600, MatteK ink
Uncoated: minL*= 19
Coated: minL*= 13

Epson 7800, PhotoK ink
Uncoated: minL* = 27
Coated: minL* = 16

You can see from this that coating the canvas is the great equalizer when using either MatteK or PhotoK ink and lowers the minL* into the teens, perfectly adequate for a good soft-proof.

[of course the REAL trick is to use a Spectrolino/Spectroscan with a polarization filter...then you just measure pre-coat and move on!  ]

terry

[Iliah]

> [of course the REAL trick is to use a Spectrolino/Spectroscan with a polarization filter...then you just measure pre-coat and move on!  ]

From about 8 years with Spectroscan - can't agree more.
Have yet to test 6mm aperture and pola filter on Barbieri Spectro LFP Series 3.