Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/10/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Dave, I have this printer too. I actually really like glossy prints as giving the best depth impression. Personal taste, I know. I actually only use a Fujifilm premium glossy paper, similar to the Epson PG. I suggest that it is very much worthwhile to invest in a profile of your printer with your chosen paper stock.. Once you have the colour management nailed down, it's all WYSIWYG and lovely saturated consistent output. For the bw, I found that I could substantially neutralise the output, with the standard inks, by using a simple curve. However, I have settled on toned bw output (I use Photokit) which works very well and is consistent. This is using your colur management workflow. You will be aware of the issues with coloured inks vs black sets regarding longevity. However I don't consider the R800 an ideal candidate for pure bw, due to the use of only two black positions (alternates, not together). Cheers Hoppy -----Original Message----- From: lug-bounces+hoppyman=bigpond.net.au@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-bounces+hoppyman=bigpond.net.au@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of David Rodgers Sent: Tuesday, 31 October 2006 03:37 To: Leica Users Group Subject: [Leica] Printing on Glossy Paper I just thought I'd share a recent experience. I've never been a fan of glossy prints. But my recent purchase of an Epson R800 changed that opinion. I bought a Refurb R800 from Epson intending to print BW with K7 inks. But before even ordering the inks from Cone, I used the UltraChromes that came with the R800 on some glossy paper samples that I've had since forever. My first attempts on glossy were a disaster. The problems turned out to be software related. Once I got everything configured properly the results were amazingly good. Setting up and using profiles can be tricky business. I had multiple problems which I won't go into here. I almost gave up. I finally struck gold on my last sheet of glossy paper. Color glossy prints from the R800 are superb. They're as good as the best color darkroom prints I've made. The blacks are deep and rich. The colors are bright. Best of all they don't look like inkjets. There is no sign of bronzing. Most amazing is that this is from an inexpensive printer (the refurb R800 was $200 delivered from Epson). I tried BW on the R800. Daniel Ridings mentioned he'd had problems getting consistent BW from the R800. I had problems getting uniformly neutral prints with the color inkset. Using Epson supplied profiles and PS color management (the method I use for color printing) was a complete waste of time for BW. However, I figured out how to make rich neutral BW prints using only the Epson driver. It's not 100 percent successful but I'm getting close. Only one print in 10 that I made yesterday had any sign of green cast in the highlights. I'm so impressed with the results from the R800 that I'm going to keep it for printing color and for printing bw on glossy. I bought bulk R800 inks from MIS and refillable carts. I bought several boxes of Kirkland Pro Glossy letter sized from Costco (great stuff) and several boxes of Epson Pro Glossy in 4 X 6 (which right now is 2 for one at Office Max). I spent yesterday printing 4x6 borderless prints of numerous images. I've gone through a lot of printers over the years. I think I'm going to really like the R800. I plan to print a lot and these will keeps the costs down. I haven't used the MIS inks yet but I will be soon. Some people say they look better than Epson's inks. I'm going to have to figure out another solution for BW. I'm probably going with an Epson 220 with UT3 inks and QuadToneRip. daveR _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information