some further thoughts on the Z3100
some further thoughts on the Z3100
- Subject: some further thoughts on the Z3100
- From: "Clark Omholt" <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:48:21 -0800
- Thread-topic: some further thoughts on the Z3100
(I'm posting this for Julian, who is having difficulty getting his
submissions accepted. -- Clark)
Hello,
I've been testing our demo Z3100 for the last couple weeks. When we
received the printer it was loaded with the older 4.0.0.4 firmware and a
copy of the APS. In that incarnation I noticed that the printer's gamut
was very limited in the shadows compared to our Epson 7800. While the
Epson displayed a very rounded shadow gamut (bowl-like), the HP tapered
down sharply (cone-like). We also noticed some sharp breaks especially
on matte paper. The most recent firmware upgrade (4.0.0.6) virtually
eliminated all of these issues. This indicates to me that it's still an
evolving and improving product. I rebuilt profiles using the APS and was
quite pleased to see how the gamut shape improved, especially in shadow
detail. The Epson and HP are different, they both diverge into different
shapes as the L* value declines, although now the HP displays a much
larger shadow gamut than before.
In regards to the onboard spectro, I think that it is a solid device and
have no reason at this point to mistrust the accuracy of its
measurements. The APS is a work in progress and it may be presumptuous
to make any judgments. What is obvious at this time is that the
profiling software is a limiting point in the utilization of the
spectro. I compared two profiles, one built from the APS and the other
from Monaco Profiler using a DTP-70, and in Colorthink you would not be
able to discern any differences in the gamut plots. However the prints
they yielded displayed some noticeable differences, with the Monaco
profile showing smoother transitions and better shadow detail. I fully
expect that APS results will improve as the software evolves. An
interesting feature of the APS is the ability to export measured data as
a text file to be imported into a 3rd party profiling package. I'm
currently testing this option. This not only allows for more flexibility
in profile creation, but if the patches were printed on another printer
they could be read on the HP and you could create a profile using your
existing profiling package. I'll post some gamut comparisons in the next
few days.
-Regards
Julian Mussi
email@hidden
Spectraflow, LLC.
122 Paul Drive, Suite B1
San Rafael, CA 94903
415-472-0130 main
415-235-7684 cell
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