Message
Re:Spyder3 used to create Photo Rag profile - Gamut Problem?
2010-05-24 by Daniel Vézina
By looking at your proof we can show on the very small Kodak gray ramp in the middle of the image that the dark tones are out of gamut. I suspect that the dark patches will be clogged a little bit (something that you will have to double check on a hard copy, not a proof, like David said, preferably by printing a bigger gray ramp; you can draw one by yourself in Photoshop).
I saw many 3800 that lay down too much ink on matte paper whenever the matte paper setting you use. These printers are pre-calibrated at the factory but I\u2019m force to realize that they\u2019re not all the same, especially when you work with matte paper.
Usually the paper setting to use with the Photorag is Enhance Matte/Archival Matte/Premium presentation matte photo paper (all these settings are identical and only reflect the paper name change in the recent years). Using one of these settings you will have to do some test at different ink density. Usually it is needed to reduce the ink density by about 10%, So you print the media setting check page from S3Print at 0, -5%, -10, -12, -15%. It should unclog your dark tones and then you do the profile using the same setting.
Don\u2019t worry about the gamut and color saturation of the light tones, the profiling software will take care of it. You will get about the same gamut for non dark colors as long as you don\u2019t have to reduce the ink density too much, which would be an indication that you\u2019re not using the correct media setting.
My own experience show that \u201310% ink density will probably be what you\u2019re going to end with.
Good luck!
Daniel Vézina
Technical Director
Numart Inc.
QC, Canada