Now, I have worked in the printing industry, and I know that in general it’s not possible for a printed image to exactly match an on-screen RGB image, but I feel like it should be possible for my prints to be a little more vivid. Given the cost of ink and paper, I’d prefer not to randomly play with all the settings, and I haven’t found any helpful info in the docs. I’m hoping somebody here can suggest something.
Here are some technical details:
Image: TIFF, color profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1
Software: GIMP 3.0 on Linux
Printer: Epson Artisan 1430
Paper: Canson Infinity Platine Fibre Rag (a heavyweight glossy paper designed for inkjet art/photo printing)
I’m using the Gutenprint driver, and the print shown in the attached photo was done with paper type set to “Photo Quality Inkjet Paper,” color model set to “RGB Color,” and print quality set to “Photo.” I did another print with the paper set to “Premium Glossy Photo Paper” and print quality set to “Super Photo.” The results were virtually identical. In both cases, resolution was 1440x720.
To be thorough, I suppose I should mention that I bought the printer, ink, and paper about 9 years ago, and they’ve been in storage for most of that time. The ink cartridges that were in the printer didn’t work, so I installed “new” ones (i.e. 9 years old but sealed in the original packages). Had to run the print head cleaning routine about 10 times in order to get good prints.
So, can anyone suggest some settings that might brighten up the colors a bit?
My printout has incorrect or missing colors. What should I do?
The problem could be due to a software setting, the product’s condition, or the paper you’re using. Check the following:
Make sure the Black/Grayscale or Grayscale setting is not selected in your printer software.
For best results, use genuine EPSON ink and paper.
Run a nozzle check to see if any of the print head nozzles are clogged. Then clean the print head if necessary.
The ink cartridges may be old or low on ink, and you may need to replace them.
Try turning off Fix Photo in the printer software.
Try changing the Gamma setting in your printer software.
Your printed colors can never exactly match your on-screen colors. However, you can use a color management system to get as close as possible. Try using the color management options in your printer software.
If you’re using ICM color management in your application, select Off (No Color Adjustment) for the Color Management setting in the printer software.
After you print, the colors on your printout will take some time to set as the ink dries. During this time, the colors may look different than you expect. To reduce the drying time, avoid stacking your prints on top of each other.
Sigh. No. I suppose I should do that. The reason I haven’t is that I have a bit of red-green color blindness, and when I’ve used monitor calibration software in the past, I don’t seem to be able to see all the things the program expects me to see, so I don’t have confidence in the results.
For what it’s worth, though, I’ve viewed this photo many times by different means (it’s one of my favorites), and I believe what shows on the screen in my photo is pretty accurate. It was originally a Kodachrome slide; I digitized it using a good quality film scanner, taking care to get the colors as accurate as possible.
Also, I care much more about the vividness of the print than matching the on-screen image - at least, with this photo, not necessarily every photo.
Right. That’s why I asked what I asked. The Gutenprint driver has a lot of options, and some of them are not really documented (e.g. paper type). Before I waste hundreds of dollars trying all the different combinations, I was hoping maybe someone has printed with this printer and this or similar paper, and might know what settings make sense to try.
I’m using Epson ink, but I’m a bit skeptical about that paper recommendation. Canson paper is a well-regarded brand used by many professional artists, and the particular type I used is designed for fine art and photo printing on inkjet printers. It should be fine, in fact I think it is likely of better quality than any Epson paper - but it is different, so I’m not sure which paper type to select.
As I said, I replaced the cartridges, and cleaned the print heads multiple times.
My printer software doesn’t have those settings.
As I mentioned, I’m well aware of this.
Ah, well, here’s where it gets tricky. I can’t seem to find an ICC profile for the Artisan 1430. Neither Epson nor Canson seems to have one available (though I haven’t explored very deeply on the Epson website). I did find profiles on the Canson website for an Epson model (Stylus 1400) that might be very similar to mine. Or it might not.
… which gets back to the reason I asked in the first place. I’m aware of several settings that might help, but I could easily waste hundreds of dollars trying all the different combinations of settings. I was hoping somebody here might have used the same or a similar combination of hardware, software, and paper, and could help me narrow it down a bit.
I agree that using only original Epson papers is just a recommendation - by Mr. Epson himself! Other brands will do as well and might be better, or worse.
I use several papers manufactured by Epson, Ilford and Hahnemühle on two Epson printers and the only thing to do is to find out which paper to select in the Epson printer driver to match or nearly match the used paper. In my experience there’s not a big difference between glossy, premium glossy or ultra glossy, for example.
Paper maker Red River has some free ICC profiles for your Epson Artisan 1430, although I didn’t see a paper that comes close to your Canson paper.
Another possible solution for you is to use “a poor man’s monitor calibration”. I used that before with succes.
Write down your current monitor settings like brightness and contrast.
Adapt those settings so, that the image on your monitor is close to the print. Write these settings down as well.
Open another photo and edit to taste. What you see on your screen will resemble what you’re going to print.
Once the edit session is over, you can restore your monitor to the values you wrote down in 1).
When you start a new edit sessions, adjust your monitor with the values from 2).
Have you checked if the colors in the tiff are in gamut for sRGB? What rendering intent did you use?
edit - Not sure it will really matter, but palatine fibre (unless it differs from the 310 that I use) should use the semi-gloss not glossy setting on the printer.
