>I'm not sure what to do next. My profiles just aren't matching my monitor,
>despite repeated
>calibrations of both monitor and printer. I recently figured out the calibration
>of the printfix
>device is supposed to be done on the white thing in the mount, not the white
>square on the
>test print, but that hasn't seemed to help much. The prints are not matching the
>soft proofs
>either. They are darker, usually, and the color is off.
>
>I have also noticed I can't seem to select the papers I want to use in the
>pulldown menus--
>namely, the Epson archival matte and premium glossy photo paper. Neither will
>select, but on
>the matte I get some strange window popping up behind that seems to be a bug or
>something.
>
>the nozzles are all fine. monitor is at 6500k, 2.2, on a Mac. I've set the
>luminance for around
>100, I think, though the numbers seem to want to roam a bit when I'm trying to
>calibrate.
>
>can anyone help?
There's a bug between the larger format Epson drivers and OSX 10.4.8 and
later; trying to switch driver settings with the popups in the Epson's
printer settings pane sends commands that are somehow "leaking through" into
the PFP application underneath the dialog. We've been trying to figure this
one out but don't have a fix for it yet. (OSX 10.4.9 doesn't appear to help,
either).
That's where the strange behavior comes from.
There's a workaround: in any other application (like Photoshop), create a
Preset in the Epson driver that has the settings you want to use (paper
type, output quality, etc). Then, when you're printing targets from PFP,
use the Preset to switch the settings for you (this works without a hitch).
Yes, calibrating the spectro on the calibration TILE (not the paper) is
correct. Any measurements you created with the spectro calibrated on the
PAPER are wrong and you need to just throw them out. When in doubt: open
up the Target window for a measurement set and use the arrow keys to go
to the paper white square. If you get a Lab value whose L is close to 90;
and whose a and b values are close to 0, and usually on the same "side" of
0; then you took the measurements with the spectro calibrated on the paper
(wrong). Throw them out so you'll never be tempted to use them again and
remeasure.
(Most papers measure with a color cast; typically a "b" value of between
-3 and -5; although this is true more of glossy papers; matte papers such
as Epson Enhanced Matte are different. Most papers measure with an L of 94
or greater. If you see a paper white measurement of, say (90.6, 1.1, 1.3)
then that's generally a sign of incorrect spectro calibration).
To prevent this misstep: in the PFP 2.1 software (being readied for
release), there's a big picture of the spectro itself, sitting on its
calibration base, with a red arrow pointing to the calibration tile, when
you get to the UI screen for calibrating the spectro. We're hoping that's
clear enough...:-)
Other comments:
When you print targets and later print through the profile, make sure the
Epson driver is set the same way. (Now that you know how to use Presets to
avoid the 3800 driver/OSX 10.4.8+ problem, you should be able to do this
with any paper type setting that you want). The Color Management pane in the
driver should be set to Off.
When you measure, put one blank sheet of paper under the target that you're
measuring.
Make sure you always calibrate the spectro with it sitting completely in
it's base, with the nose flush on the round white tile.
Best regards,
--
David Miller
Senior Software Developer, Digital Color Solutions
ColorVision