Digital BW, The Print

Hi Ernst.

Yes, I have tried every matte setting in the Epson 4000 driver.  
There are some minor differences, but they are all weak and deficient 
in ink flow.  The glossy paper settings work great.  

I can overcome this with QTR for B&W, but I have concluded that my 
only solution for color prints on matte paper is a RIP, like 
StudioPrint.  It is doubtful Epson will modify their driver, but I 
intend for them to get an earful regardless.  Who knows, if enough of 
us complain, they might even do something.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Lou

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Ernst Dinkla 
<E.Dinkla@c...> wrote:
> Louis Dina wrote:
> 
> >Thanks for the suggestion, Jay.
> >
> >Yes, I tried that, and it seemed to increase the density of the 
tones 
> >between black and paper white, but didn't seem to boost the Dmax 
at 
> >all.  The tech guy at Epson said that bumping the color density 
will 
> >not increase the total ink limit, just the intermediate 
densities.  
> >That was my experience, but I only tried one test.  It is probably 
> >worth revisiting to be absolutely sure.
> >
> >Unless some new evidence comes to light, I have to conclude it is 
a 
> >driver limitation tied to premature ink limits programmed into 
their 
> >matte paper settings.  So, the solution is an updated driver or a 
RIP.
> >
> >No such problem with QTR, BTW.  It lays down all the ink I need on 
my 
> >4000.  But for color on matte papers, it looks like a RIP is my 
only 
> >current solution.  The Epson 4000 driver does fine with glossy 
papers 
> >on my printer.
> >
> >Lou
> >  
> >
> Lou,
> 
> You have tried all the available matte paper settings of the 
4000 ?  On 
> the 9000 and 10000 drivers there are differences in inklimit 
between the 
> paper settings, the last also has some artificial paper settings 
(no 
> reference to a paper by name) that give a lot more ink. That's what 
I 
> once proposed they should include in the Epson drivers some paper 
> settings that are not bound to a known paper but would make custom 
> profiling for canvas and special papers easier. It didn't know that 
they 
> actually did that for a driver till I bought the 10000 secondhand.
> 
> If you are using a Mac you could try Gimp-print and do the 
profiling in 
> Photoshop, Gimp-print can probably be customised with some help. 
Slow as 
> I understand it. Otherwise you have to get a RIP like Studioprint.
> 
> Ernst