New member here, crossposting from the r/darktable subreddit as google seems to be redirecting me here a lot, so i thought someone might be able to help
I’m a new Darktable user, I’m trying to move away from windows (don’t like the whole copilot stuff) and bring my photography to my bluefin box.
I’ve used linux for years as a developer but never for photography.
So i mostly have used lightroom classic for editing my photos because of negative lab pro, i’ve recently did some test of negadoctor and I have to say I’m very impressed.
Recentrly I decided to learn to print, I got myself an epson ecotank 8550, installed the drivers and added it to the cups server but this is where i’m getting confused.
I have figured out how to calibrate my display on linux with display cal and apply that in my settings.
When i open darktabale and i go to the print module i see colour managed by printer.
I downloaded an icc profile for my printer and paper and put it into the .config/darktable/color/out folder and that makes it available in the colour section at the top of the print module, it doesn’t seem to change the looks of the image though
there is also an outuput profile at the bottom of the module, what does that do?
As you can see I’m a bit confused so what would be a good printing workflof on darktable to get an edited image softproofed and sent to the printer?
Also the driver is epson and there should be and advanced black and white mode but i can’t see it… is that just because the driver is missing it on linux?
No it only shows it on windows, but to be fair outside of the printer utility which doesn’t show it im not aware of official Epson software that could help me verify that
Nothing except broken stuff The ICC provided for papers/printers are expected to be used on Windows or macOS but not on GNU/Linux. A profile also depends on the software used to print and no paper supplier are supporting CUPS on GNU/Linux.
The only safe way I have found (and that I’m using) is to bug a Turboprint license (not expensive at all). See the following page for your printer:
Note that I’m the one having implemented Turboprint support in darktable as I’m also using GNU/Linux and wanted top quality print. I’m really pleased with this solution.
Hi, I’ve seen turboprint recommended a few times and I tried installing it in a distrobox but didn’t have a lot of success, I might have to layer it on top of bluefin.
The profiles will be just the ones they offer I can’t use say the fotospeed paper, and if I wanted them made I’d have to do that for each paper correct?
So do you have any suggestions as to how to decide paper to use? Do the test packs in windows, find the ones I like and then get profiles made by the turboprint guys?
Ty
Well ok, but the turboprint software is already doing a generic job with pretty good quality, add the paper (or a close one, smoothpearl, glossy, mat…) and you get a print above 95% in quality I would say. Sure if you have the proper paper calibrated it will be a bit better but you’ll mostly not even see the difference I would bet. The most important parts of a printer profile is the whitepoint (from the paper - how white the paper is) and the DMAX.
I’ll test turboprint compared to the epson drivers paper profiles and see what i get, i don’t mind supporting the developer and buying the software, but need to understand the advantages over the epson driver if neither allows me to use the paper manufacturer profiles
I have an ecotank printer. I print 4x6 for the kids room wall and minor stuff like that from dt/fedora. Select the proper glossy photo paper and it is good enough when I use the managed by printer. I need to try the turbo print to see if there is enough difference.
Now the soft proofing icc are used when you are editing in dt (or other software). They allow you to see in your screen how the image will look like (simulated) when you print it on that paper/printer. Don’t use the soft proof icc to print.
Ah !!! So Epson is now providing driver for Linux. That’s a very good news, I didn’t know… So you are right, you may stick with Epson driver then, probably better and you have the ICC for your paper from Epson most probably. I think this is the best option today. Again, sorry for the noise, we learn something everyday
it is one of the reasons i picked this printer it seemed to offer decent linux support although i can’t see all options in it like the advanced black and white mode etc
