Profiling CcMmYK vs CMYK inkjet printers
Profiling CcMmYK vs CMYK inkjet printers
- Subject: Profiling CcMmYK vs CMYK inkjet printers
- From: Armand Rosenberg <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 13:29:02 -0500
Please bear with me a little while I explain this...
Still using (profiling) an Epson EX with various glossy papers.
Skipping the "optimization" step in CompassProfile 2.54 for this
6-color printer (CcMmYK) and printing RGB files thru the Epson driver
eventually produces decent (RGB) profiles after a substantial amount of
tweaking with PS curves (I mean the PS curve that CompassProfile uses
when building the profile from the data). I measure with a ColorMouse
CM2C (colorimeter).
"Optimization" tends to produce very "muddy" profiled prints with the EX,
so I decided to skip it...
I recently got my hands on an old but still functional Epson Stylus
600, which is 4-color (CMYK). I'm also sending it RGB files thru its
driver. Interestingly enough, CompassProfile pretty much nailed the
600 profile
(also RGB) on the first try, unlike the EX, without need of a PS curve at
all -- ie, no tweaking needed. Used same paper as with the EX. Still
skipping the "optimization" step. Prints are a lttle "grainy"
("pebble-ey"), especially in highlights, but colors and contrast are
good. The pebbles have nothing to do with the profile, I think -- I
get similar results with other driver settings (like "Auto"),
although in that case the colors aren't quite right, of course -- so
the pebbles are intrinsic to the dithering pattern or "black
generation" or some such for this old printer...
So far so good (well, the profiling is tolerable with the EX, not great).
Here are my questions:
1) Is there a reason to think the 4-color inkjet printers are easier to
profile than the 6-color ones?
If so, then are there any current 4-color inkjets (not necessarily
Epson) in the $500 range that give photo results comparable to the
6-color models (maybe not quite as good, but still acceptable)? I'm
sure they're all better than this old 600 -- are the pebbles gone for
good from the highlights in the new 4-color models?
2) Still wondering at what point I need to measure more than my usual
125 patches. I don't see much of an effect on colors (from the EX) as
I go to more patches, but I haven't done a lot of experimenting due
to the exorbitant amount of time involved with the ColorMouse. (I
know, at least it's faster than a Colortron...)
Any help is appreciated, as always. Happy holidays!
Armand