Datacolor User to User Support Group.

The below tests were all visually evaluated under daylight fluorescent, daylight and 
sunlight. Not very scientific but I wanted an idea of the performance for a number of 
different profiles and PrintFix Pro.

I decided to use the 150 sample profile because it did a very good job printing color. More 
about using PrintFix Pro in another post tomorrow.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------


I've spent a few hours today printing a 100 step gray ramp with my Epson 4800 on Luster 
paper with the following profiles:

ColorVision 150 patch profile

Epson 1440 PLPP stock profile

Bill Atkinson's 9800 PLU 1440 Std. BA CS2 profile

Epson's ABW using Tone: Neutral  Horz.0  Vert. 0 settings.


I was looking for overall color-tone/neutrality, shadow and highlight performance.

Firstly regarding Bill Atkinson's profile. Bill recommends "linearizing" the 4800 with 
Epson's ColorBase software to bring the printer in-line with the 9800 that his profiles were 
built on. My printer was not linearized since ColorBase works with only certain spectros 
and the PrintFIX PRO is not one of them. With that said his profiles – Luster, Semi-Matte 
and Semi-Gloss - have become my standard with very close to excellent results with my 
color prints.

On to my tests....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------

The overall color tone/neutrality....

Advanced Black and White was slightly on the warm side...bias towards yellow. 

ColorVision 150 profile was slightly on the cool side...bias towards cyan.

The two above if not compared would be close to neutral to the eye.

Epson's stock Luster profile was quite warm...bias towards red. Think of a platinum print.

Atkinson's profile was slightly purple/blue bias. I looked at it throughout the day to see if 
my eye could neutralize it but I always saw some of the color tone.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------

Shadow Detail....

Epson's ABW using Tone: Neutral - was the clear champ....showed all patches in the 90% 
to 100% range.

Epson stock profile blocked-up at about 95% on up.

Both ColorVision's and Atkinson's profile blocked-up at about 93% on up.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------

Highlight Detail....

This was a screen to print comparison.

ABW had the best match from print to screen.

Epson's stock profile and Atkinson's profile were slightly heavy from 5% to 1%

Colorvision patches form 5% to 1% were slightly light. The 1% patch still held some 
density.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------

--- In colorvision_group@yahoogroups.com, CDTobie@... wrote:
> I'll be interested to see what improvements you find with 225 patch profiles, 
> and even 729 patch under PrintFIX PRO. Given that its no more paper or ink, 
> and only an additional minute or so's reading time, I use 225 patch profiles 
> instead of 150 for most everything. They should certainly add some detail in 
> near blacks, near whites, and possibly some changes in grays as well, as those 
> are the areas the extra patches focus on. For demaning uses like this, it 
> certainly makes sense to use 225 patches.

That's good to know. I'll print out a 225 patch tomorrow and compare. I was just getting 
my feet wet with the whole feel of building profiles so I went with the smallest 150 patch 
target. Actually I printed a couple of color prints with the 150 patch profile and it gave 
Atkinson's Luster profile a run for it's money.

> Did you use the Media Setting Check function to determine your media setting 
> for this profile? I find that with the most optimal (as opposed to the most 
> likely named) media setting, the shadow detail can be significantly improved.

Hmm....NO! 

So are you saying that Epson's Media Type: Luster might not be the best setting for Luster 
paper?

Guess I'll do the Media Setting Check too.

Thanks,

John