Computer/printer made for photos..silly Q's attached..

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stevewestern

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OK, this might (like when are my questions not silly..) be a silly question, but I am getting cheesed off with getting variable results all the time when printing. I have a huey calibrator, I try to keep most thing standard, but need some serious help. I may be about to commit to using one company to do most of my printing, plus will be doing some myself, and I need to get consistant results.
So, as I need a laptop, and printers are cheap, is there anyone who can build me a laptop set up to work with a particular (new if necessary) printer, plus with settings that can be used by the company that print my out-sourced stuff so that it all works as it should. I am happy to stick to one printer, one paper, one type of ink, if it means that I get consistant results..?
Any ideas ?
Cheers, from a frustrated Steve, with a pile of screwed-up prints on the floor beside him ..
 
Hi Steve

What printer are you currently using? And are you using their standard inks / compatible paper?

Rgds

Lee
 
Lee - I have an Epson R220, using Epson inks and Epson premium Glossy..
I just want it to be easy, simple, so that when I send out prints from a printing company the results will be as I see them on my monitor, and when I print them on my printer.
I know I could achieve this by spending hours trying and messing about, but my eyes can't take too long infront of the pc, and I don't have the time - I have kids to enjoy, work to do, and enough frustration without adding to it...
 
I thinks it's easier to make the monitor match the print than vice versa, start with a print you think is 'right' and go from there.
 
Steve,
if you haven't already ditch Adobe gamut and use sRGB everywhere
when you print get the printer to sort the mess out "perceptual"

what have you got for a pc?

I got "eye-one" but any decent monitor setter upper should be ok
 
Mike - For a pc, I have an aged (like me..) thing that struggles to open Elements 5, so it may need updating. It was state of the art in 1874, so may just be past it's best (yes, I know, like me..) I also want to get a laptop so I can work away from the pc and it's desk - I need to slouch in the music room and play, rather than sit here infront of the pc in 'work' mode.
What do you mean by getting the printer to sort out the mess using perceptual.. ?
I think my Huey might do all it is asked, but I just want some kind person to deliver me a box, all set up, so that I can use the printer they supply, with the correct ink and paper and get prints as they ought to look, and that when I get a printing company to print, that their prints look like mine - is that too much to ask..?
At this stage, i ought to mention that I am getting some serious help from wwwTogsFriend.co.uk with advice nd help. They seem to be willing to listen to my endless questions and come up with useful suggestions, but any other help is so much needed...
Cheers
Steve
 
i have an epson r200 - just lightly older than your model, i print to kodak ultima or fuji something or other 270gsm stuff.. i always use epson inks.
i dont use any monitor calibration stuff but always check the paper profile to tweak the printer settings
there is probably so much more i should do, but if i do any editing, once finished, i click print, printer properties, ensure i have the correct paper type selected and follow the settings for the specific paper i am using, and hey presto i am pleased (maybe easily).
i would imagine matching that to an outsourced printer is going to be the hard bit..
there are paper profiles you can download from epson to help configure the printer.
as for your old pc that in itself wont be the source of poor print quality, as long as it has the correct print drivers etc..
for a laptop that very much depends on your budget £300 budget acer or HP to £1800++ apple or somewhere in between... :) :shrug:
 
andyt - I do always check the printer properties and adjust as needed, but still find my prints rarely look as seen on the screen, so as I may be about to get a laptop, it seems to make sence to see if anyone can get it all set up with the printer to save me the frustration..
I am looking at LeeP's printing services, as I seem to be hearing good things about him (see Toothies thread about her new website) and he has been helping me out behind the scenes, but surely I am not the first here who wants an out-of-the-box solution...?
 
Steve laptops and colour matching aren't a good mix - you really need to go the Macbook route to have any chance of getting consistent results.

As for everything else, here's what you need to check.

sRGB as your working space in everything.

Your editing s/w is setup to use the profile Huey created for display, sRGB for the working space.

You have the right profiles for your printer, the ones that comes with the R220 are no good, I have better ones here if you want to PM me your email address.

In print settings make sure you are in ICM mode with colour adjustments turned OFF and that the s/w doing the printing is managing the colour.

You also have to make sure the s/w printing is full colour managed. Adobe apps and QImage are the only ones I've tested that do get it right. Gimp is supposed to as well but I've not tested it.
 
pxl8 said:
Steve laptops and colour matching aren't a good mix - you really need to go the Macbook route to have any chance of getting consistent results.

As for everything else, here's what you need to check.

sRGB as your working space in everything.

Your editing s/w is setup to use the profile Huey created for display, sRGB for the working space.

You have the right profiles for your printer, the ones that comes with the R220 are no good, I have better ones here if you want to PM me your email address.

In print settings make sure you are in ICM mode with colour adjustments turned OFF and that the s/w doing the printing is managing the colour.

You also have to make sure the s/w printing is full colour managed. Adobe apps and QImage are the only ones I've tested that do get it right. Gimp is supposed to as well but I've not tested it.
Click to expand...

By default GIMP tries to run the printing processor itself and causes issues on the Mac for various printers in the Epson family. You get inconsistent results from what I've tested of it. QImage is super and is used by a few labs I know of :)
 
pxl8 - I use ACDSee for most of my processing - you know anything about it ? I also have Elements 5 but as my pc is so old it takes ages to open a RAW file, so is rarely used.
I'll PM you for help with the printer, but what do you mean about macbooks - when I said a laptop, I am open to whatever suggestions - I guess you are saying that it is easier to get a good display with a mac..?
Never heard of QIimage - what can you tell me..?
Any further help you can give, I am very grateful for - Thanks to all of you !
Steve
 
steveinspain said:
pxl8 - I use ACDSee for most of my processing - you know anything about it ? I also have Elements 5 but as my pc is so old it takes ages to open a RAW file, so is rarely used.
I'll PM you for help with the printer, but what do you mean about macbooks - when I said a laptop, I am open to whatever suggestions - I guess you are saying that it is easier to get a good display with a mac..?
Never heard of QIimage - what can you tell me..?
Click to expand...

With ACDSee it depends on which version you have. The Pro Photo version offers colour management of a sort via Windows Color Engine. Mixed reports about how well it works but supposedly it does if you set it up with the right profiles and in the printer options switch on ICM but DO NOT tick the disabled box (this is so Windows will handle the ICM rather than the application doing the printing.

Macbooks - yes, most Windows based laptops don't have a way of changing the screen colour temp and it's stuck at 9300K which is very blue. sRGB needs a temp of 6500K and whilst programs like the Huey s/w can try and tweak the display the results aren't very good and don't match well. In this respect Macbooks are much easier to get set up and calibrated.

QImage is a app purely for printing. It has all sorts of options but the main reasons I use it are because it is rock solid with colour management and preserves a lot more detail in the print than Adobe's print engine.

The profiles for your epson are the key to getting consistent colour. Profiles are like different languages and a colour managed application can translate between them. The profile tells the software what it needs for translation. If you don't have a profile the s/w can't translate. It sounds like you've been use the Epson Photo Enhance mode or similar for your prints which is basically a best guess for bright colours, etc. but with no regard to accuracy. With the profiles I'm going email across you'll be able to let the s/w do a proper translation which will give much better results, not 100% perfect but pretty close and consistent (assuming the s/w is managing the colours correctly).
 
PXL8 - I have ACDSee 8 - not the pro version. Having got the profiles you have sent, I have printed off one print, and boy, is it different - gone from being dark and over saturated to almost dull and flat (maybe more accurate though..!) Then, I ran out of ink, and have spent half of this morning trying to get more - not easy out here, as of the 4 pc shops I went to , not one had any - I normally have a back-up set of cartridges, but following some heavy printing recently my recent order has not turned up yet...
 
Ok, when you get some more ink download the trial version of Qimage from here:

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

Set it up to use the printer profile I emailed you and see what the results are like. The lite version is only $35 and it's worth every penny(cent) :)
 
I've just bought Qimage, and to say the interface is idiosyncratic is an understatement :banana:.

Though I'm sure I'll get into it eventually, and it seems to have a pretty big following.

They have a good pricing policy, you can buy in at any level and upgrade as required.
 
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