It seems like I’ve found a bug in the MacOS port of Darktable, and I’m unable to print using the print module. I’m wondering what the best way to print is.
Save the image with sRGB output color profile. Open image in GIMP or MacOS Preview, and print using the ICC profile for my printer/paper?
Save the image with the ICC printer/paper color profile. Open image in GIMP or MacOS Preview and use default printer settings?
Other options?
I just bought a larger format printer, and I’m trying to make some prints for my mother’s 85th birthday.
Same as what @paperdigits says, export as JPEG, then print with Preview. This side of professional printers, your best bet for accurate colors are the manufacturer’s printer profiles.
For third party papers, you’ll need to experiment with printer profiles. On my Epson printer, there are staggering and completely undocumented discrepancies in color accuracy and resolution between the various profiles, so experiment you must.
Papers vary wildly… if your using even semi-expensive photo paper and the vendor doesn’t provide some instructions on what to set your print driver to, then its time to find a new vendor.
Sadly, if you want the best and most accurate, use your printer vendors papers.
Or if you have a colormeter, you can create custom profiles per paper. I did this a number of years ago and the results were terrific. I need to do it again.
They do, but often only for professional printers. Hahnemühle, for instance, provides profiles for the higher-end Epson XP15000, but not my consumer-grade XP8500. But you’re right, the provided instructions do translate well to my printer. But I hear that it tends to be more difficult with other printer manufacturers.
But even where a profile is not provided, some experimentation can usually land you with a decent rendition.