printer profiling

nwilkins · Jul 3, 2014

I am about to pull the trigger on an epson 3880 which I intend to use exclusively for black and white prints. Will I also need to buy a monitor and/or printer calibrator? I haven't ever printed from my home computer before so no idea of the process involved.

Thanks,

Nick

L Gebhardt · Jul 4, 2014

I would recommend at least getting a good monitor calibrator. The stock profiles with the 3880 are very good, so you can probably skip the printer calibration at first. However it will depend on how you are printing black and white. I tone the images in Photoshop or Lightroom and print them as color, so that process uses the printer calibration. If you use Quadtone RIP it won't. I don't know about the myriad other methods.

However if you buy something like the ColorMunki (the full version) it will do both and works very well. Not a bad option to have.

RalphLambrecht · Jul 4, 2014

+1 as it reflects my recent experience

nwilkins · Jul 4, 2014

well I don't even know what Quadtone RIP is so I guess I'll have to do some more research. I don't anticipate toning my prints so perhaps just the monitor calibration will do. does printer calibration affect brightness, contrast and tonality or is it purely for calibrating colours other than black and white?

L Gebhardt · Jul 4, 2014

nwilkins said:
well I don't even know what Quadtone RIP is so I guess I'll have to do some more research. I don't anticipate toning my prints so perhaps just the monitor calibration will do. does printer calibration affect brightness, contrast and tonality or is it purely for calibrating colours other than black and white?

See QuadToneRIP Overview for details on Quad Tone RIP. I find it very useful for printing black and white, but you can get excellent results with other methods.

Printer calibration affects brightness, contrast and tonality in addition to color rendering. So a good profile is essential if you are printing the image as color. If you use the AWB (Epson's Advanced Black and White) you won't be using profiles. You will also be limited to a few set tones.

In my experience the single biggest factor for getting prints to match the screen was to calibrate the monitor. And the most important part of that is setting the brightness. For indoor conditions I find a monitor brightness of 80Cd/m^3 is perfect. This is lower than most recommendations I have seen, but after much trial and error this is what I find works. I would think if you are printing only black and white (no toning in PS or LR) you could start without calibrating your monitor. Simply print an image with a range of tones using either QTR or AWB and then adjust the monitor brightness until it matches your print. My guess is you will end up very close. The image color may not match between the two, but that is expected with either QTR or AWB type printing.

nwilkins · Aug 21, 2014

okay so just to recap (tell me if I have this right):

if I don't want to tone the prints I won't need to bother calibrating the printer, because printer calibration will only affect colour profiles?

Instead I will use either the epson software or QTR to print, so no colour profiles will be employed and nothing would be affected by getting a printer calibrator?

Would monitor calibration help to ensure that the black and white prints look similar to what is on my screen?

lenny · Aug 21, 2014

If you are going to do b&w only, as you say, in addition to the Quadtone RIP, you should use Jon Cone's inks. If you don't ever fill the machine with color inks, you won't have to clean them out again... See Piezography Black and White Inkjet

Black and White inks are superior to balancing color inks, they have better longevity, and the prints are just exquisite. I've been using them for many years...

Lenny

nwilkins · Aug 21, 2014

thanks for the tip Lenny. can you confirm that there would be no need to get a printer calibrator for just printing b/w? But should I be calibrating my monitor in an effort to have it match the printer output? Is that something that quadtone RIP would do or would I want to use quadtone in concert with a monitor calibrator?

RalphLambrecht · Aug 21, 2014

nwilkins said:
I am about to pull the trigger on an epson 3880 which I intend to use exclusively for black and white prints. Will I also need to buy a monitor and/or printer calibrator? I haven't ever printed from my home computer before so no idea of the process involved.

Thanks,

Nick

the 3880 is excellent. It took 20 minutes to set up and print high-quality B&W with it. As long as your monitor is calibrated, you can skip printer calibration and use canned profiles. I do however go through a luminance calibration for best results.That is a simpler process but needs a densitometer.,which I still had from my darkroom days.

lenny · Aug 22, 2014

nwilkins said:
thanks for the tip Lenny. can you confirm that there would be no need to get a printer calibrator for just printing b/w? But should I be calibrating my monitor in an effort to have it match the printer output? Is that something that quadtone RIP would do or would I want to use quadtone in concert with a monitor calibrator?

A calibrator is always a good idea, provided you don't expect it to do more than it can. Canned profiles for QTR are probably going to be pretty good, at least to start out with. Calibrating one's monitor is always a good thing. All these steps get you more predictability when printing.

Printing what you see on the screen and expecting the print to look exactly like it is not exactly possible. One gets closer to it, but it only works if you print every day. There are a lot of other factors involved from the way the printer and the inks are printing today to one's own perception of what the monitor looks like. Best is to try and get close, then look at the print vs the monitor...

Lenny

nwilkins · Aug 22, 2014

okay thanks guys. any recommendations on a monitor calibrator? if i don't need printer calibration I'd rather not spend $400 on the color munki.

Ruben · Sep 12, 2014

nwilkins said:
okay thanks guys. any recommendations on a monitor calibrator? if i don't need printer calibration I'd rather not spend $400 on the color munki.

As a standalone monitor calibration tool I work with the Spyder4Pro and am happy with it.

Furthermore I print with Hahnemuehle papers and use their ICC print profiles which gives me nice results:
Messung und Kalibrierung mit HCFR - Seite 5 - Bild Messtechnik - Beisammen.de

I.G.I. · Jun 4, 2015

nwilkins said:
I am about to pull the trigger on an epson 3880 which I intend to use exclusively for black and white prints. Will I also need to buy a monitor and/or printer calibrator? I haven't ever printed from my home computer before so no idea of the process involved.

Thanks,

Nick

I will strongly disagree with some posters and say that printer profiling is crucial no matter colour or B&W. Even if you stick to the same brand printer and papers and use the manufacturer "canned" profiles, because of the variation from unit to unit that the stock profiles need to accommodate printers usually deposit too much ink, leading to defects in the finished print due to soaking of the paper; reduction of the ink between 10 and 20% on the Epson pro-range (where the driver permits such a reduction) in not unusual. The difference between a stock profile and a custom - even one quickly made - is huge!

In a nutshell printer profiling will save you a great deal of money from waster ink and papers; as well as time and negative emotions.

RalphLambrecht · Aug 24, 2017

nwilkins said:
I am about to pull the trigger on an epson 3880 which I intend to use exclusively for black and white prints. Will I also need to buy a monitor and/or printer calibrator? I haven't ever printed from my home computer before so no idea of the process involved.

Thanks,

Nick

bite the bullet and get yourself a Colormunki Photo;it will calibrate your monitor and printer; you'll be glad you did.

Patrick Robert James · Aug 24, 2017

Everyone is trying to spend your money.... Given the fact that this is your first printer, I wouldn't convert the printer to an alternative inkset just yet.... Since printing black and white is fairly simple, I would suggest that you try what you have first before you go down the rabbit hole of profiling yourself.

Personally I would pass on the Colormonki for profiling a printer with the caveat that I have never used it. I think it would just be a waste of money. Get a good monitor puck like the Eye1 Display to get your monitor right. They aren't that much money, maybe $250. Others are good as well. Monitors are pretty easy to get right these days. Profiling a printer to give truly great results takes time and money. Ask anyone that has done it. I even made a profile once for someone who laminated his prints. That was fun, but I digress. You can also save money by buying a used Eye1 Pro which would be the best bet especially if you can get the modern software with it. They don't sell for all that much the last time I checked, maybe the cost of the ColorMonki. The Eye1 Pro will do everything you will need and if it doesn't come with the X-Rite software there are alternatives available that still work great with the Eye1 Pro.

I think I might have rambled a little there but I hope that helps.

RalphLambrecht · Aug 24, 2017

nwilkins said:
okay thanks guys. any recommendations on a monitor calibrator? if i don't need printer calibration I'd rather not spend $400 on the color munki.

$400 I never regretted.

Richard Boutwell · Aug 24, 2017

I realize this thread started 3 years ago, but to second Patrick's recommendation for the used i1 Pro. Most of the inexpensive ones on eBay name came with i1 Match, which will allow you to still profile your display with i1 Profiler. The hardware dongle inside the i1 Pro might not allow you to make printer profiles with i1 Profiler, but you can still make measurements with it using i1 Profiler (or a few other pieces of software) to use with the QuadTone RIP tools or my own standalone tool for directly modifying QTR curves. I have the spyder print and the color munki and, as for as QTR goes, would recommend the spyderprint over the colormunki for the simplicity of the software and the ease of making measurements. The color munki can work in scanning mode, but it is a pain to say the least.

printer profiling

I.G.I.

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