Epson 1290, ICC profiles, happiness, and inner peace... :)

[Rudi]

Hi everyone,

Today I picked up an Epson 1290 (A3) printer. What a difference! My old Epson 720 was good (still is, actually :)), but this printer is so much better... especially as far as colour matching is concerned... I downloaded some ICC profiles from Epson (they have a different one for each of their papers), and now the colours are pretty much spot-on every single time! Pretty happy with that. :D Resolution and print-quality wise, the 720 was very close to the 1290, but the 1290 *is* better.

And now for my question: Does anyone here know where I can get some profiles for the Ilford Gallerie papers (especially the Smooth and Classic Pearl varieties)? Also... any tips you'd like to share about the Epson 1290 that will make my life easier in the future? :)

Thanks in advance,

[Rudi]

... maybe someone here uses one of the Epson profiles with these Ilford papers? If so, which profile do you use with which paper?

[john_houghton]

Ilford Classic Pearl can give nice results on a 1290 with a little care. I don't have a custom profile, but you can manage with a "curves" profile if you have Photoshop.

Set the paper type to Glossy Film, and select 2880dpi. This is necessary to avoid coalescence (ink dots gathering into puddles). Set no colour adjustment. In Photoshop's print dialog, set the profile to be either Premium Glossy or Photo Paper. Neither is perfect - one will give a slightly magenta tint, the other will be a bit green.

The next problem is "bronzing" caused by over-inking: the blacks will have a bronze metallic sheen to them. This can be eliminated by lifting the black level with curves or levels.

The way to use curves to deal with all these problems is to print out a greyscale in an rgb image file. I use levels 0, 32 64,96,...,255 in patches 1cm square across the top of an A6 sheet. You can do test prints, moving the greyscale down 1 cm or so each time. Adjust the level and colour balance of each patch until you get a good neutral print with all the levels differentiated. Note that the colours change as they dry, so wait 24 hours before making final judgments of the image quality. The ink on the Pearl paper takes a long time to dry. A hair drier can speed things up a bit! Leave the prints in an airing cupboard overnight.

Use the rgb values in the adjusted greyscale to construct a curves file that translates input values of 0, 32, 64 etc to the measured values in the greyscale. This curves file can then be applied to any image before printing. (The process of making the curves file is quick and easy using the colour picker, if you are conversant with all the features of the curves dialog. I can provide detailed instructions if you like).

I have used this technique with a variety of papers and got much improved results, even with Epson's own papers.

John