Printed Blacks too Black

[martcol]

My prints on my Epson 2100 are fine overall but the blacks loose detail. I have just printed off some graduation shots and the gowns are just black. On screen they look great - very black but still full of detail.

I have a great monitor and it's callibrated using EyeOne. To my shame, I have EyeOne Proof so, am using my own printer profiles. Any clues as to what I might be doing wrong?

Oh, things look fine when I send off for prints.

Thanks

Martin

[Bodog]

You say on the screen they look great... Are you printing from Photoshop? Did you "soft proof" it against the printer/paper profile you used to print? If your monitor is correctly profiled, then the soft proof should be pretty close. That said, getting deep shadow detail from an inkjet is problematic. Doubt if you can get any detail below 9,9,9. Are you printing to glossy or matte? That may make a difference also.

[martcol]

Originally Posted by Bodog

You say on the screen they look great... Are you printing from Photoshop? Did you "soft proof" it against the printer/paper profile you used to print? If your monitor is correctly profiled, then the soft proof should be pretty close. That said, getting deep shadow detail from an inkjet is problematic. Doubt if you can get any detail below 9,9,9. Are you printing to glossy or matte? That may make a difference also.

Hmmm,

Printing via Photoshop and/or Qimage
I'll try soft proof
It's more like mid 20s to low 30s per channel
This was on matte - I'll try glossy.

Martin

[Bodog]

I think you should be able to maintain detail in that tonal range. I'm no expert on this by any means, but believe I have read that matte will give you greater D-max. Are you using the matte black ink or the photo ink? The matte black is definitely better for printing on matte. Which paper are you using? Better papers maintain more shadow detail. I would try different profiles with soft proofing to see which looks best. I sometimes have to tweak the gamma little when the image is too dark.