The Magic Ink Limit
Jun. 27th, 2008 02:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikA few years ago when I bought the Epson 3800 I went up to K&S in Palo Alto to buy some large format papers for the first time. After picking up bigger sizes of the papers I already knew, I decided to take a risk and buy a box of slightly spendier "fine art" paper I saw on the shelf. The salesdude at the store assured me it was the best stuff they carried and it was preferred by all their "real pros". It was pricey, plain-looking matte and had the brand name Hahnemühle on the box. It stung a little for that particular shopping trip, but I just had to try it.
Unlike all the papers I'd used previously, this had no apparent coating of any kind; no 'shiny side'. It was a heavy, fiber-based stock and a notable texture. By comparison, the usual Epson Heavyweight Matte papers look purposefully smoothed down on the side you were supposed to print on. Nothing in the box told me which side I was supposed to print on, so I had to try both.
Neither side looked very good at all.
For the life of me I could not get that 3800 printer to make a good print on it. No matter what profile or setup I tried, the resulting images were all washed out and faded, like something that had been left in the sun. I even followed the exact how-to on their site using their factory profiles. Eventually I found out which side I was supposed to print on when a tech from another print shop shared one of the secrets of clay-coated papers: lightly moisten your index finger and pinch a corner of the paper between it and your thumb. The side that feels tacky and sticks to your finger for a brief moment is the side you're supposed to print on (the clay). Sure enough, the Hahnemühle paper had a tack side when I tried it, but even this knowledge didn't help me get a good print out of it.
I put the box back up on the shelf, grumbling at wasted funds, and forgot about it for two years.
When I got the new printer and was on my Must Profile Everything! spree, I re-found the box. Hey... cool! I could finally get some value out of that old Hahnemühle box. I eagerly fed a sheet in and ran the calibrations. The chart seemed a little washed out, but I figured that the profiling would fix that. I fired up Photoshop and put out my usual test image, hoping for the best. Toot toot! Another ride on the Failboat. It looked just as bad as it did on my 3800. Just as some dogs won't hunt, this paper just wouldn't print. Grrrrr.
While completing some prints for one of my Anthrocon clients I stumbled across a forum message of someone else having the same problem with the same paper. As if it was just something "everybody knew", one of the mods answered the thread in a rather flippiant way: "C'mon, that's a thirsty paper. Crank your ink limit up, and I mean way up. Then you'll see why we all love Hahnemühle's fine art series." Huh. That's something I'd never tried on a heavy matte; usually you want to do the opposite! That was a few nights ago. Tonight I figured I'd give it a go before heading off to bed. It's a relatively simple process: just delete the old profiles on the printer's hard drive and re-run the calibration system. This time, crank the ink limit from the usual 30% or so up to 45% so the printer won't be so stingy with the pigments. Twenty minutes later it finished scanning the new .ICC profile and was ready to go.
I just ran the test print, and wow. For a matte finish the amount of color 'pop' is astonishing. I wish I'd found this fix before sending off Pseudo's prints -- he'd flip over this paper compared to the perl Innova I sent him. Two full years after buying that box of paper I now know what the photo salesman was on about. You should see how black and white photos look on it, using all four black-levels this printer has. Who needs a darkroom any more?
Now to go find out if Hahnemühle sells their papers in rollstock...
Unlike all the papers I'd used previously, this had no apparent coating of any kind; no 'shiny side'. It was a heavy, fiber-based stock and a notable texture. By comparison, the usual Epson Heavyweight Matte papers look purposefully smoothed down on the side you were supposed to print on. Nothing in the box told me which side I was supposed to print on, so I had to try both.
Neither side looked very good at all.
For the life of me I could not get that 3800 printer to make a good print on it. No matter what profile or setup I tried, the resulting images were all washed out and faded, like something that had been left in the sun. I even followed the exact how-to on their site using their factory profiles. Eventually I found out which side I was supposed to print on when a tech from another print shop shared one of the secrets of clay-coated papers: lightly moisten your index finger and pinch a corner of the paper between it and your thumb. The side that feels tacky and sticks to your finger for a brief moment is the side you're supposed to print on (the clay). Sure enough, the Hahnemühle paper had a tack side when I tried it, but even this knowledge didn't help me get a good print out of it.
I put the box back up on the shelf, grumbling at wasted funds, and forgot about it for two years.
When I got the new printer and was on my Must Profile Everything! spree, I re-found the box. Hey... cool! I could finally get some value out of that old Hahnemühle box. I eagerly fed a sheet in and ran the calibrations. The chart seemed a little washed out, but I figured that the profiling would fix that. I fired up Photoshop and put out my usual test image, hoping for the best. Toot toot! Another ride on the Failboat. It looked just as bad as it did on my 3800. Just as some dogs won't hunt, this paper just wouldn't print. Grrrrr.
While completing some prints for one of my Anthrocon clients I stumbled across a forum message of someone else having the same problem with the same paper. As if it was just something "everybody knew", one of the mods answered the thread in a rather flippiant way: "C'mon, that's a thirsty paper. Crank your ink limit up, and I mean way up. Then you'll see why we all love Hahnemühle's fine art series." Huh. That's something I'd never tried on a heavy matte; usually you want to do the opposite! That was a few nights ago. Tonight I figured I'd give it a go before heading off to bed. It's a relatively simple process: just delete the old profiles on the printer's hard drive and re-run the calibration system. This time, crank the ink limit from the usual 30% or so up to 45% so the printer won't be so stingy with the pigments. Twenty minutes later it finished scanning the new .ICC profile and was ready to go.
I just ran the test print, and wow. For a matte finish the amount of color 'pop' is astonishing. I wish I'd found this fix before sending off Pseudo's prints -- he'd flip over this paper compared to the perl Innova I sent him. Two full years after buying that box of paper I now know what the photo salesman was on about. You should see how black and white photos look on it, using all four black-levels this printer has. Who needs a darkroom any more?
Now to go find out if Hahnemühle sells their papers in rollstock...
