Printer calibration

[cowasaki]

Well I've had my monitor calibrated since I bought my camera and I use the HUEY PRO.

I have an Epson R2400 and am using refillable ink cartridges and non Epson paper. The quality is very good but the images do not match what is on the screen. I have just taken a really good shot of my niece but it is too pink.

I am now looking for some way of calibrating printers myself because I use several operating systems, several printers and several papers!

I have seen a review of the Spyder print but was wondering what other people use and what the results are like. If I have to buy a package including a screen calibrator then I will just sell off the HUEY PRO.

 

[mho]

I make printer profiles as part of the colour calibration service I offer clients, usually businesses or individuals that require their entire workflow managed (I dont do one offs) and use Gretag Macbeth's Profilemaker 5 software and an i1 pro, scanning table, and X-rite DTP41UV, this offers the top end of custom profiling and editing to be done.

I have used the X-rite ColorMunki Photo and Spyder 3 Print suite, and while both are very good, they just don't give the consistency / accuracy of the Profilemaker 5 software, but then their is a vast difference in price.

I would have no doubt in recommending them to some one who wants to spend time rolling their own profiles, my choice would be the colourmunki photo.

If you do the calibration correctly, you will get some very good results.

The only problem with using some third party inks is that their constancy is not very good batch to batch, which will cause you a lot of work if you have to re-profile for each batch.

 

[EOS_JD]

Well I've had my monitor calibrated since I bought my camera and I use the HUEY PRO.

I have an Epson R2400 and am using refillable ink cartridges and non Epson paper. The quality is very good but the images do not match what is on the screen. I have just taken a really good shot of my niece but it is too pink.

I am now looking for some way of calibrating printers myself because I use several operating systems, several printers and several papers!

I have seen a review of the Spyder print but was wondering what other people use and what the results are like. If I have to buy a package including a screen calibrator then I will just sell off the HUEY PRO.

First off you have a fantastic printer. But using refillable cartridges is questionable! There's no consistency with these and there's the chance of ruining your printer

THat said, I have just purchased a Continuous Ink System although I've not installed it as yet. I believe these are more consistent and provide excellent pigment inks and quality of results that are pretty consistent.

I would say forget the calibration of your printer. Just too expensive (cheap ones are not worth the money)

Look for good custom profiles and always use the correct profile for the paper/ink combination you use with that printer.

If you buy paper from say Fotospeed or Permajet, they offer free profiles with their own papers. I bought the Fotospeed CIS system but I can get these custom profiles from wither company by buying their own papers.

A custom profile will go a long way to providing the best from your printer. But make sure your inks are consistent quality too.
JD

 

[Oakey22]

i bought a Spyder3 Suite which has The Spyder3 Print. Works very very well. I printed one image without a profile just using it standard and then used the one i had made, the difference is unreal.