GO using HDPK settings

I’ve just set up my 3880 with HDPK. From memory, I used to use 1440 and bidirectional when printing GO. Is this what should be used with HDPK?

Yeah. You can do 1440 BiD with HDPK. I suggest letting the HDPK dry a bit longer than the old WN1 though.

best,
Walker

Thanks Walker. Was there any reason for changing to GO curve to print all values, not just 255?

I made it that just incase someone accidentally left their image in the window when they went to print the GO curve. This way it won’t ruin the print.

-Walker

Thanks. It came as a surprise when I tried to only print a 21x4 sized piece of paper, and got the whole page instead.

There have been suggestions in the past to print GO at 2880 BID. I think it was Dana who suggested this. I found this post, not sure if there are others. What is the current position on 1440 vs 2880 GO? You said “yes you can do 1400 BID”, which seems to imply there may be alternatives.

I will expand dana’s quote a bit from the other post as I feel @Brian_S is suggesting something that is already settled :

1440/bid is normal for GO. But in some cases other settings work better. If you are doing Exh Fiber Jeff, you may want to do 2880 per the other post. Up to you.

best,
Walker

Thanks Walker. That thread ended up with the discovery that EEF was a different paper than it had been to start. I certainly won’t be using it.

Just FYI (for those reading this thread wondering about EEF “Epson Exhibition Fiber”):

New-style HDPK gloss curves work on current EEF btw (epson ink with P800 does not). We still test this paper as the years go by because so many people print with it.

Rule of thumb: if you ever find a paper you like, buy a bunch of that batch right away if you can afford it. You never know if it’s going to work the next time unless it’s a truly LTS paper like Hahnemuhle Photo Rag. We still have old-school EEF in stock for edition artists because of this rule that we live by at CEP.

best,
Walker

I asked the question because GO is something of a trial and error process, based around 30,000 as a starting point. Surely IJM and CEP in particular have has a set of starting point formulae for different papers that they use themselves, which could be share with users? Jon shared a few some years back, but only for a limited range of papers. Dana’s post added some more, and raised a wider range of possibilities, but there was no further development of those ideas. A bit of regularly updated guidance could save some of the trial and error and hence time and paper and ink.

The new curve structure allows 30000 to be used for pretty much everything now.

It was simpler for me to just fix the curves when I was hired . . .

best,
Walker

A bit like our toning discussion in another thread, this one has me scratching my head. My impression has been that the amount of GO and how it is applied was more determined by the characteristics of the paper, especially the surface texture. That’s how it seemed to work in practice. IGFS is a real struggle to GO properly whereas Platine is a snap. How does the curve have an effect?

I feel like I’m repeating myself.

The lower total ink limit per ink curve allows for more consistent inking on all papers. The lower TIL (total amount of ink) at the highest amounts (shadows) also allows for more consistent GO application from highlight throughout the shadows on all papers.

The curves were improved.

Slightly Less Ink = Slightly Less Color although I feel like small changes in paper chemistry from lot to lot changes the color way more personally.

-Walker

No, I don’t think so, not that I’ve seen in public forums.

Lot variation can certainly be an issue.