Visually Close Gracol and SWOP Proofs w Epson 9880 and NO Rip?

[ImageMaker]

Hello All,

We have an Epson 9880 printer and would like to make proofs as visually close as possible to Gracol and SWOP as possible without going to the expense of purchasing a Rip.

Wanted to get your help/advice on the subject please. It's my understanding that if we use the Epson specific papers "Standard Proofing Paper" and "Standard Proofing Paper SWOP" in combination with the profiles Epson supplies for those papers and images tagged with the appropriate SWOP or Gracol profiles that we should be able to produce a visually close proof although it may fail "by the numbers" when the scale is read and checked.

I would be happy knowing my proof is "very close" visually even if the numbers do not read exactly, the goal being get as close as we can using what we have and add a rip later as funds allow. Some color management is better than no color management correct?

Thoughts?

 

[chevalier]

For such a minor cost (about the price of a proofer or less) I strongly advise you to buy a RIP. Heck, if you buy a new proofer you can get the vendor to throw in a RIP sometimes (EPSON at least used to have a promotion for a free EFI RIP with purchase).

That said…
If you have a spectrophotometer and software to create ICC profiles... You should be able to do this manually and then link your print dialog to the ICC you generated. You could even print an ISO12647-7 color bar manually and before/after/daily/weekly/whatever-your-choice-intervals to verify that your proofs are hitting spec.

I'd bet since you are not willing to expense a RIP that you likely do not have a spectrophotometer either. You could hire someone to do this for you I suppose or borrow one.

Good luck, but I'm going to re-iterate that I recommend buying a RIP rather than going through what will likely be an incredibly frustrating experience of trying to do this manually.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

One of the things that an inkjet proofing RIP brings to the table is repeatable results via calibration. From my limited testing of using the workflow outlined in the original post, there is a chalk and cheese difference between the visual results (however results may vary). Something is better than nothing, however if the something is misleading, then how useful is it?

What are you are going to use for your visual reference? Do you have a “certified” proof produced from a proofing system to compare to your print so that you can see how close you are to the desired goal? What about in a week/months time, how repeatable are the results from one proof to the next?


Stephen Marsh

 

[ImageMaker]

Thanks and I agree a rip is the way to go IF you can afford it and God willing someday we will.

Currently I'm looking for help to get as close as we can with what we've got. And yes we do have an EyeOne spectrophotometer, but no software to build profiles with. We have been using freeprocesscontrol.com to check our control strip and are off by 4 Delta E on average on our SWOP proof. Need to get someone to make a certified one to compare to but I think we're close.

My thought on consistency was to use a gray scale to check linearization. Question if we just proof with default Epson RGB settings those are inconsistent also so I'm not introducing inconsistency that is not already in our process correct?

 

[Stephen Marsh]

If you are going to try this, then:

* Source files/printing: You will need a colour managed program to print files from. Most likely these will be PDF files that you are trying to proof. I would suggest that the PDF files are PDF/X-1a (CMYK, no RGB) to keep this simple. As a valid PDF/X file, these will have an output intent profile such as GRACoL in them. You will then only print from Acrobat (not some third party PDF viewer or other application). Once you have the basics sorted, you could explore a latter PDF/X standard.

* Printer Settings: This will depend on your platform (Mac or Win), your printer driver version etc. There can be both Acrobat specific settings and printer driver specific settings that may not be so obvious that will need trialling. Without having one or more good proof examples and or an accurate soft-proof available it will be hard to know when you have the right combination of settings in Acrobat and the print driver.


Stephen Marsh

 

[rich apollo]

Without a RIP you can't control the device. How are you linearizing? You can't use ColorSync for the color conversions as that pathway is broken. That leaves you with the driver, or only printing out of apps that take over the color management tasks.

There are some very reasonably priced RIPs out there: EFI Fiery eXpress, Colorburst, Mirage, ImageNest, Megarip Raster... A RIP saves money.

 

[chevalier]

Most likely these will be PDF files that you are trying to proof. I would suggest that the PDF files are PDF/X-1a (CMYK, no RGB) to keep this simple. As a valid PDF/X file, these will have an output intent profile such as GRACoL in them. You will then only print from Acrobat (not some third party PDF viewer or other application). Once you have the basics sorted, you could explore a latter PDF/X standard.

Steven,

I was under the impression that PDF/X1a is blind exchange and only PDF/X4 and above embedded output intent. Am I misinformed?

 

[Colorblind]

Steven,

I was under the impression that PDF/X1a is blind exchange and only PDF/X4 and above embedded output intent. Am I misinformed?

In PDF/X1a the output intent is mandatory.

 

[rich apollo]

In PDF/X1a the output intent is mandatory.

But items inside the PDF cannot be tagged. That's probably what you're thinking of, chevalier. PDF/X-4 can have ICC-based color.

 

[ImageMaker]

Ok here's where we are guys, I'm attaching our readings from freeprocesscontrol. Looks like we are within the 3 to 6 Delta E as described in the ColorWiki definition.

What do you think?

 

[ImageMaker]

Also I have question about acrobat dialogs and from where the color is being managed that someone may be able to answer, take a look at the attached.

In acrobat, in the print settings, when color mode is set to "off" color management defaults to the advanced tab correct? And when color mode is set to sRGB the Epson is using it's own default print setup and ignoring the advanced tab and also tagged profiles in the pdf correct?

 

[Stephen Marsh]

You will need some good proof samples from a proofing RIP, with varied colour content.

You will need to invest time and materials testing various application and printer driver settings to find a combination that comes close to the proof samples. Change one option at a time and test. It is not always obvious what settings and combinations to use. Perhaps use a small test file to save on waste.

Good luck.


Stephen Marsh

 

[ImageMaker]

Did anyone get a chance to look at the attachments and questions in my last two posts? Interested in hearing from you. Thanks!

 

[hansman]

So how are you going to linearize the printer from within the programs?
You will need a RIP to compensate for your printers inability to remain in the exact colorspace from day to day.
Without that the above question does not even apply!