Datacolor User to User Support Group.

>Thanks Tom,  I did a little research this morning and read that coated
>art paper settings have smaller gamut's than the photo papers
>(luster,glossy),  there for are easier to profile.  Maybe that is why
>the test targets I printed on epson luster look better with the art
>paper settings.  Duno.

It's more a question of the kinds of results you can get, after profiling,
more than how easy the paper is to profile or not.

When you print the target on any given paper, with a specific media setting,
you're seeing the absolute limits of what can be printed on that printer/ink/
paper/media setting combination. Your saturated colors can't be any more
saturated; your black can't be any blacker. The most that any profile can
do is give you the extremes, as they're printed in the target, and make
everything else in between look right. (Nothing else is physically possible).

If you compare target prints on different papers from the same printer,
you'll see that some papers have a wider gamut than others. With pigmented
inks, glossy/luster papers will always give you a black with a much lower
measured L value than what you can get on any matte/fine art paper, coated
or not.

So if your goal is to get the deepest absolute blacks, you will never be
able to achieve that with matte papers vs. glossy, no matter what any profile
does.

Also, speaking of resolution: I wouldn't bother running any of these tests
at 720 dpi. Just do them at the resolution you're going to be making real
prints at and leave it at that. (So: 1440 or 2880).

>So when I start to build a profile, I have to print a chart of every
>paper setting every time?

That's a little extreme. And even if you wanted to be extreme, I would suggest
the following: pick 4, and print them in corners on the same sheet, then
just eyeball them quickly and make a judgement. On letter size paper, it's
pretty quick to just run the same sheet back through the printer and overprint.
(The only printers this WON'T work on are the gloss-optimized Epsons, like
my R800, since with gloss optimizer on, the entire sheet, including blank white
area, gets covered and you can't overprint onto it).

>it would be nice for us 24"roll paper  users
>to be able to print the tests in a strait line instead of 4 corners. 

That wouldn't help, because you have to do the prints SEPARATELY, with the
media setting changed in the driver. You can't do them all in one shot,
so printing them in a straight line doesn't work. You need to print; go back
into the driver; change the media setting; print again. With roll paper,
you -could- roll the paper back up and print again (although I'm not sure
how easy that is; on my 4800, everything having to do with handling and printing
roll paper is sheer annoyance).

I'd suggest cutting a chunk off the roll, and then cut -that- into
two letter sized sheets, if you don't have any cut sheets of the same media.

>
>Yes, it is better than atkinsons.

Now -that- is great to hear...:-)

>And a shmo like me made it the same
>day I got the stuff.

You can probably do it quicker and more efficiently the next time around,
too, now that you've been through the process once.


-- 
David Miller
Senior Software Developer, Digital Color Solutions
ColorVision