Creating Custom Profile Epson 4800

[gingercat43]

I am currently using profilemaker 5.08 to create customer profile for my Epson Stylus 4800 Pro printer.
I am using an RIP to print to this printer.
When I create the profile it is printing with a blue cast over the entire picture. I have tried may variations to correct this problem. I created a profile for my HP Designjet 130 using the same rip without any problem.

Any ideas on how to resolve this problem would be greatly received.

[stargate]

what rip and what version are you using? what spectro? what paper?

[gingercat43]

Hi,

I am using Open Rip version5 by RipIt and trying to create profile for Epson premium inkjet paper

[macphenom]

What chart are you using to build your profiles?
What rendering intent?
What gamut are you using? Classic, Logo Colorful.
UV cut or No cut.
Sounds like you are having an issue with optical brighteners in the paper.
All the little things make a difference.

[gingercat43]

What chart are you using to build your profiles? EC12002CMYKi1_IO chart, I tried the IT8 7.3 CMYK most of the literate suggest the EC chart to be more detailedt
What rendering intent? - Relative
What gamut are you using? Classic, Logo Colorful. - Classic
UV cut or No cut. - UV cut
Sounds like you are having an issue with optical brighteners in the paper. - I thought of that. I tried a different paper, tried to edit the whitepoint but still same result. I know that there is optical brightener in the paper but I am not really sure how to correct for it.
I have thought that the ink may have been too dense as the first couple of test sheets I ran had some ink bleed. I have adjusted settings on the RIP to decrease the ink density so that there is no ink bleed and then printing and measuring the test sheets again. I am still getting the same dismal results.

When I am in photoshop and looking in the proof setup, the image looks create. If I click on the "Preserve CMYK numbers" the image darkens drastically but this is what my printouts look like. I believe the "Preserve CMYK numbers" is supposed to give you what you would see with the absolute rendering. If I open the profile in profile editor, my image looks like it does with the "Preserve CMYK numbers".

Do you have a recommended process profiling.
Eg, Calibrate printer, set ink density, run test sheet, measure, etc
All the little things make a difference.

[macphenom]

The first thing I would do is use "Logo Colorful" It has the newest math available and use Large for the gamut.
The second thing I would do is use the "No Cut" and let Profilemaker do the correction for the brighteners. It will auto activate if it sees the brighteners.
Relative intent does not put casts into proofs like Absolute can depending on the source file, so I don't think the intent is a problem. Try those first.
If that does not work I have a friend who was an engineer for Gretag Macbeth an is a color genius. I can give him a call and get his two cents worth.

The ECI 2002 is a good choice, but I prefer the IT8/74 in a random pattern that I generate from Profilemaker.

The 4800 is an 8 color proofer if I remember correctly. Does your rip have the ability to use all 8 colors or does it just use the cmyk. the reason I am asking is setting up a 8 color proofer correctly is a time consuming project. To have an accurate proof using all colors you need to be able to set different start and stop points for each color. Say for example you want the Light Light Black to start at 0% but end at 30% then the Light Black to run from 30% to 50% and then the Black to start at 50% and continue to 100% you need to be able to tell the rip what to do. I am not familiar with your rip so its hard for me to know what is available as far as color control to the printer is there.

[gingercat43]

Before I go any further, I want to thank you for you input. In this day and age, it is very nice to see people still willling to help each other.

I reviewed the entire print process and I think part of the problem is with the printer driver. I have done some experimenting and am seeing some better colour results on the test patterns. I need to let them dry so I can measure them. I will experiment with some of your suggestions and see how things go.

Unfortunately for me, the rip won't see the additional colours of the Epson printer. I don't have much control over the individual colours.

I will let you know how things go.

Thanks again.

[gingercat43]

changing to the Logo Colourful made a big difference to the colour. I now have something to work with.

Would you have any suggestions on how to get good spot colour reproduction. We print mostly spot colours so this is an important part of getting a colour print for customer approval.

[Werby]

Forgive me for going a little OT, but I had a couple questions about macphenom's post.

1. I've heard that Profilemaker's ability to compensate for optical brighteners only shows up in the perceptual rendering intent, which wouldn't come into play in a proofing scenario. Do you have any experience with this or have you tested the difference between UVcut and UVin when proofing?

2. I don't understand why you need such granular control over each of the 8 inks. My RIP (Oris ColorTuner) can get excellent color matching on my Epson 4800, and it utilizes all 8 inks in the printer, but nowhere does it offer control of each individual ink. My impression is that is what the printer driver and the firmware of the printer do; the RIP feeds the driver a CMYK value and it uses all 8 inks to best simulate it. Why do you need to be able to dictate exactly when various inks start and stop?

I'm not familiar with Open Rip (gingercat's RIP), but I highly doubt it isn't utilizing all the inks available on the Epson. The interface may only let you see and manipulate 4 channels, but much like my RIP, it probably passes off CMYK data to the driver which then decides how to best combine all 8 inks for the best color match. Just a guess.

-Todd Shirley

[macphenom]

The compensation works in all rendering intents. I have used both uv and no cut and find that no cut and profilemakers ability to compensate for the brighteners work the best. I use an isis xl to build my profiles which does both uv and no cut at the same time.
As far as Oris goes, I have not used that software so I would imagine that between the driver and software all the ink stops are are predetermined.
I use Rampage with RPD so setting up 7 and 8 color proofers are a little more convoluted as compared to GMG or Oris.
I have seen other Rips out there that do not utilize all the inks, thats why I mentioned it.