Hey folks. New around here, and new to DarkTable. Running 3.6 on a new M1 Mac Mini. In an effort to leave the Adobe subscription service, I found DT and have been slowly getting to know it before I make the leap completely. Appreciate all the useful info I’ve found here on the forum. Thank you!
I’ve also learned a bunch from some of the youtubers who focus on DT.
While I’ve encountered the oft mentioned learning curve, my initial impressions are positive. And I’m really enjoying the expanded histogram, more robust modules and some other features that LR lacked.
I’m working toward a good workflow for printing to my Epson R1900, and I have a couple simple questions I haven’t been able to figure out on my own or find in a search:
I’m a little confused by the undo function. If I make a change - say move a slider from 0-10 in one smooth move without releasing the left click. If I decide to undo what I thought was one move - it might take 5-10 ctrl/z to get back to zero. I thought it might be a preference but I’ve found nothing. Is there a way to have single moves be…well, single? I have found the double click to reset. But that doesn’t help if your move was from anywhere other than the default position.
If anyone is printing at home, I’d appreciate a link to a solid workflow. I’ve found a few things online - but they are mostly about prepping for delivering to print houses (saving file to disc). Are people printing directly from DT?
What is the best (not trying to start a “best motor oil” argument here!) color space to be working in throughout the flow? I have a calibrated monitor (old colormunki photo), edit in DT and then would like to print to the Epson. Currently I am setting (in the softproof button):
Display: system
Soft proof: paper ICC profile
Histogram: softproof profile
Then in Print window:
Printer Profile: paper ICC
Print settings profile: paper ICC
Does this look correct/workable? Or are there better options?
Your choice of soft-proofing and histogram profile does not affect the working space, which is defined by the input colour profile (Rec2020 by default).
I’m just hoping that I am set up best for delivery to the printer. Based on everything I’ve read - I think I’ve got it straight. But just looking to see if anyone notices flaws in my logic.
I don’t think there’s a way to make undo/redo more granular but you can select an earlier point in the history stack if you like. That might undo more changes than you want though.
I’ve definitely got all the granularity I can handle at this point :).
It almost appears as if the program is writing/saving data points along the path as you move the curser, even though it seems/meant to be one fluid motion.
It’s the one thing I’ve encountered so far that is a bit frustrating. Especially in the early learning phase - where undo comes in handy!
I’ve been using the history stack to step back and start fresh if I’ve gotten to far down the line for undo.
I think this one is a hard one to fit everyone (ie the way the sliders work). I am not sure if hysteresis is the right word but often instruments with dials for example you will go past and then come back to a set point or people using sliders in software will go back and forth to land on a final setting…a smooth instantaneous update facilitates that visual representation during adjustment…others like yourself might want to not have an update until the mouse is released…the later might work with your need to jump back with ctl-z but for others they might want the instant and gradual feedback when dialing in an adjustment…Not sure I am explaining this well and it doesn’t solve your use case…
Hi and welcome! I have almost the same setup as you, except:
i don’t edit on mac, but on linux, and I export a tiff
my printer is an Epson SC-P600
I print from Preview with color management enabled. I do this to be able to print using the Epson driver interface. I have no idea if that is exposed in darktable, as I’ve never looked.
What you have looks correct. If you want to get extra super fancy, the color munki can also profile your printer/paper combo, but I found it to be quite a bit of work for not a lot of payoff.
This is fine if printing is the main thing you do. I peronally have mine set to AdobeRGB, as (1) it converts down to sRGB well for web display and (2) the epson printer supports Adobe RGB natively. I output a tiff with Adobe RGB as the embedded profile, then tell the printer to also use Adobe RGB.
Totally get what you’re describing from my work as an audio engineer, and the use of faders while mixing. There are now USB devices that attempt to mimic a physical fader by writing data in a (somewhat) constant manner to approximate the physical throw that a fader would have. While not perfect - they work fairly well.
The problem here is that the written data of the slider doesn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason - not linear at all. It seems to jump around to random (to me) points along the throw. In fact the first point is almost always in the opposite direction that I wish to travel - I assume due to slight movement when I click on the arrow.
I didn’t mention - but I’m using a Logitech thumb ball mouse. Maybe I should test it with a typical mouse to see if it changes anything. But I suspect that it’s click-dependent. So probably won’t make a difference.
I actually have some profiles I created using the colormunki for other papers. Just haven’t done it for the new paper I’ve been trying out. I agree, I’m not sure that it provides a noticeable improvement over the downloaded paper manufacturer ICC profiles. Maybe peace of mind knowing the calibrator has scanned the actual colors as laid down to the paper instead of an approximation from ICC profile.
I’ve been thinking that export might be the better workflow out of darktable. My one print from DT didn’t bring up the epson print window, so I was not able to double-check all the settings. It just went straight to the printer from within the DT print window.
To clarify, are you exporting with the embedded color space and then allowing the Epson driver to control color from within the epson print window? Or opting for ColorSync? I have always been confused as to whether ColorSync or Epson driver picks up on the embedded profile.
Unfortunately, I’ve had difficulty installing the Logitech software on the past few Mac OS. So I have not had the controller for a while. I haven’t looked in a while - it’s worth a shot. Might be worth just using the standard OS mouse controls to see if I can get it smoother. I also think a mouse plugged into USB (Logitech is wireless dongle) might help. I can try that as well.
I may end up giving that a shot. Exporting to disk with a profile embedded, and then print from within Preview. Also, just yesterday I downloaded a stand-alone Epson printer app that I never knew existed. I suppose either of these options would ensure I was seeing that final printer dialog box.
darktable uses CUPS to print, which macos supports well, but I’m not sure what options are exposed to cups from epson’s print driver. I didn’t care to find out, hence just using Preview. There is a checkbox to turn on color management in preview, else you’ll get bad results.
I’ve been reading about the CUPS and taking advantage of ICC profile. Little confusing, so I think your method makes the most sense for me until I can fully wrap my head around printing from DT. Doesn’t sound like it’s really necessary.
Thanks for the guidance. Looking forward to getting this printing squared away and digging deeper into the program.
I also archive my print tiff/jpeg file, which is another reason I don’t print directly from darktable, so if I want to reproduce that specific print, I should be able to.