Epson 3880, color shift

InkjetMall Customer Support ConeColor Inks & Printing
1

I am a new user of cone inks and overall I am happy with the quality of the inks.

My only problem now is the icc and color shift. I downloaded the corrected icc from inkjetmall site: CCP-3880-HANptoRagBaryta. - (My printer is EPSON 3880, Hahnemühle PhotoRag Baryta paper).

While printing using cone ink CCP-3880-HANptoRagBaryta icc, blues are purple and every color is a little bit warmy. Some colors shifts are subtle, really unnoticeable but blues are definitely purple!

After several attempts and settings, I tried to use other icc profiles (not from cone ink), the colors result were much MUCH better, mainly using “perceptual” but sad, still not perfect, the prints were without contrast and unsaturated.

So I decided to try “printer manage colors” and color management on and now the prints are ok, I would say 85% ok.

I believe the problem is icc… but sure I can be wrong. Someone from inkjetmall suggested me to purchase a “custom icc”… should I try that??? any other suggestion?

I print from photoshop, finest detail, 2880ppp.

2

You may have already checked this, and I apologize for the obvious answer, but over the years, the single most common cause of “purple” prints is that in the -printer- driver (the last dialog you see before hitting the print button) you do not have “color management off” set (to off).

3

It’s greyed out 55
I assume it’s disabled (?)

4

Are you using regular blacks or HD blacks?

Did you follow the setup instructions from the download page exactly as stated?

5

Hi, thanks for helping. I’m using regular blacks (photo black).
I’m going to share my settings and some pics, maybe it helps!
I did follow the instructions and I guess I tried every option possible.
Although the instructions suggest Adobe RGB 1998, Printing using Adobe RGB 1998 is very saturated here, looks terribly fake. Using sRGB is really better… (!?) I’m going to share some pics asap.

6

settings

2

7

I’m replying for the community (already did by private email as Nathalia is sending me an ICC target).

  1. In the screenshots your image shows as Untagged. It should be Adobe or sRGB. (This could be the problem.)

  2. Related to printing the targets: When you are printing these targets you DO NOT want to print your targets from Photoshop (Please follow the instructions and print them from Adobe Color Print Utility). Also, you are choosing a profile to print these targets with. The whole point of printing targets is to send raw color (no profile) to the printer so I can read the color and build a new ICC for you. This is what ACPU app does (sends raw color to the printer). All your other settings are fine.

  3. You may want to install these ICCs and just try them: https://inkjetmall.com/downloads/iccs/ConeColorPro-3880-ICC-Profiles.dmg They are the new ones.

  4. Lastly. What light source are you viewing these prints under? I can build and ICC to adapt to them. Generally Epson ICCs are adapted to non-standard (not D50 buy closer to Tungsten) environments . . .

Best,
Walker

8

Using Adobe RGB as the print profile will not work. Converting from Untagged to AdobeRGB may complicate things as well . . .

Please (if you wold) upload a section of your original image file (just a strip that shows all the colors) and I will print it on a printer at Cone Editions to test things.

best,
Walker

9

I did a very quick printout of this file this morning (on matte rag paper so it’s even less able to give good saturation, you’ll see some gamut compensation in the shadows) on a ConeColor printer we have in-house using our stock HD ICC profile and the colors are quit good (see attached photo):

I do see a very slight shift from blue-purple to more purple in the couch. This could be adjusted simply by changing what light source the ICC is built for. I photographed the print under LED lights that are lacking in the blue/cyan range. Outdoors the colors would come back.

35%20AM

IMG_3113

I think building a custom ICC for you will be the way to go. For whatever reason, your printer/system/driver combo is not handling our stock ICCs . . . .

We us OS X 10.7 or later and Photoshop/Lightroom CC or Print-Tool for printing. We print with Relative Coloremetric intent and Black Point Compensation and ideally the most recent driver from Epson.

I await your target prints.

Best,
Walker

10

It’s truly amazing there. Here it’s not even close using inkjetmall icc. I can’t understand why only blue, other colors are acceptable here.

I also tried to print using other papers and the same happens…
Yesterday I printed without any color icc, from Adobe Color Print Utility and the blue is blue again.
Printing from official Hahnemuhle site icc, the blue is blue too. I tried Relative Coloremetric, and Perceptual too, black point on and off. Definitely, something about system or driver…

Should I update the printer firmware or something I don’t know?

In any case, I will try custom icc :slight_smile:

I’m going to share some images to help the post!

11

One thing I’ll note is that the image shown in Photoshop screenshot from my post above was soft-proofed using a Hahnemuhle Baryta profile. In general I saw the image in its raw state be bluer but the Softproof shows the ink/paper relationship. If you see my screenshot vs your base jpg in say a web-browser you most likely see that the soft-proofed image is also a tiny bit more purple . . .

-Walker

12

your print looks perfect to me!

13

Here are two custom 3880 CCPro HD profiles.

One is for D50 (standard) lighting.

One is for Tungsten (inside) lighting.

Worth a test with both.

cheers,
Walker

Hahn-PhotoRagBaryta-D50.icc.zip (3.2 MB)

Hahn-PhotoRagBaryta-Tungsten.icc.zip (3.2 MB)

14

Using the custom icc, the colors are ok now! - (both D50 and Tungsten are really similar to my eyes, I can’t see big differences.)

There’s only a problem, the blacks are all TOO dark. The shadows are too deep, my print has lost details on shadows and dark areas. (The new icc also tone down lighter areas of the print a little bit.) - It’s not about contrast or brightness, it’s about shadows and dark areas. -

You said about CCpro HD profiles, I think my ink set is not HD and my epson don’t use black HD’s, I’ve purchased ConeColorPRO K3 Vivid ink, maybe that’s the problem?

15
  1. You may have printed the targets improperly. (Adobe Color Print Utility is required to print these targets + they need to be no color management, not tagged, etc.)
  2. I can’t attest for the calibration of your monitor or how you are set up with your particular studio and room lighting.
  3. You need to soft-proof with these profiles (google how to do this if you have not before).
    4.We’ve done thousands upon thousands of validated ICCs here so it’s one of the 3 above or a combo of them.

best,
Walker

16

Thanks! I’m really happy with the new icc, the colors are incredible accurate!

  • I think I can fix the darkness and brightness manually while soft proofing so I think it’s ok…-
    I’m really glad we fixed the color shift! That was definitely an icc problem!
    ( My only doubt is if you thought my Epson use black HD’s, because it’s not. )
    Thanks Walker for your patience!!! I think that’s all