Curve for Canon printer

[CraigK]

Hi All,

I recently resurected a Canon S9000 printer that had been laying unused around the studio for a while. I thought I would see if it were suitable for digital negatives. I like the S9000 a lot actually. It is roughly equivalent to the Epson 1280 or even 2200 (without pigmented inks of course). Print quality is excellent, the printer is very fast and easy to maintain/repair. We've had it for years around the studio and have never had a head clog.

So I printed the PDN colour blocking testing thingy and found that indeed, one colour, all green (0/255/0) is just able to get me a paper base white at my usual printing time with 100% palladium. Cool. So then I checked out what sort of correction curve I would need using the PDN curve calculator thingy.

To my surprise, the straight printing of the checker indicated that my correction curve would be pretty darn mild. In fact, without any correction curve at all the test was not too far out in terms of linearity.

Making a correction curve was pretty staight forward and resulted in a very gentle curve when compared to some of the contorsionist curves I have for Epson printers.

Anyway, I just thought I would share with you that Canon printers, at least the S9000 can work very well for making digi-negs. I have made a few prints with them and they are every bit as good as any epson neg. I have printed. If you would like me to send you the curve, just drop me a line (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to post it here).

 

[Timothy]

That is very interesting....
During the workshop that we did in December, we asked about using other printers, and Sandy said that he had specifically tested a Canon printer (I forget which one) because he like the way it printed so much. But when he tested the Digital negative, he found that the inks were almost opaque for UV light, so that the Colour pallete was useless. I think he said he published something about it on the Unblinking Eye.
I would like to see what others have found with this comparison as well. There are some distinct advantages to the line up of printers from both Canon and HP compared to Epson right now.
You might have started something Craig.

 

[CraigK]

I must admit that I was surprised with my initial results. I had tried it years ago with all inks and black only inks but never could get enough UV blocking from it. But green only (0/255/0) seems to do it...barely. I can get paper base white and "believable" black. If I go for absolute black or the d-max that the paper is capable of it, my whites have just the faintest bit of tone. A little Na2 cleans them up very well though. Remember, this is on 100% palladium.

I agree that canon printers have a lot of advantages over the epson in some ways. Newer canons have different inks, some I believe are even pigmented inks. So it should be interesting to see if they too can be made to work.

I think the biggest thing that jumped out at me was how much closer to linear the uncorrected test image was. Of course it was not linear, but it was miles closer than any test I have done on an epson printer.

 

[donbga]

That is very interesting....
During the workshop that we did in December, we asked about using other printers, and Sandy said that he had specifically tested a Canon printer (I forget which one) because he like the way it printed so much. But when he tested the Digital negative, he found that the inks were almost opaque for UV light, so that the Colour pallete was useless. I think he said he published something about it on the Unblinking Eye.
I would like to see what others have found with this comparison as well. There are some distinct advantages to the line up of printers from both Canon and HP compared to Epson right now.
You might have started something Craig.

Tim,

I think you have it backwards. As I recall Sandy reported that the Canon printer he tested couldn't produce enough density for UV processes.

Don Bryant

 

[donbga]

I think the biggest thing that jumped out at me was how much closer to linear the uncorrected test image was. Of course it was not linear, but it was miles closer than any test I have done on an epson printer.

I think that is a function of the printer driver and the inks. The Epson driver gives far less control than one would like for ink deposition. Yet it can be made to work using Mark's system.

And BTW, distrubuting curves that you have created for others to use may result in totally different results in someone elses workflow.

That's the point of using PDN - yes?

Don Bryant

 

[sanfrancisconudes]

I've tried two of the cheaper Canon printers. One using the dye inks provided a decent result with black ink - not quite as much of a density range as would be ideal, but passable. The other had both a pigmented and a dye black. Some driver settings would use one for the blackest blacks and the other for the just slightly less black blacks, and the test chart would have this mammoth jump in it - one of the inks was basically opaque and the other had no density. I found a driver setting that would use just one of the blacks and it was the one where the density wasn't there at all. I gave up trying to beat it into submission when my R2400 arrived. But given what I saw I would believe that depending on which Canon ink you were testing you could come up with a variety of results!

 

[CraigK]

And BTW, distrubuting curves that you have created for others to use may result in totally different results in someone elses workflow.

The main reason I wanted to post the curve was not for people to plug and play as it were but rather to show just how mild it is in comparison to the general shape of most of the curves used for epson printers.

And of course the PDN system is designed to help anyone create a curve that is specific to the process and materials used. However, if someone were to use my curve in the same printer mentioned in my post (canon s9000 printing all green 0/255/0) and with the same materials mentioned in my post (100% palladium and a soupon of Na2) then the curve would probably get them in the ballpark. You can download curves for epson printers from the Burkholder site and the Hinkel Reeder site. They will get you in the ball park with various espon printers for various processes and materials. None are perfectly correct for everyone, but all with get you within spittin distance.