I have just changed my printer (Epson 7880) from a matte only machine to one in which there are both matte black and photo black installed. I have made my first glossy print using Canson Baryta paper and love the tonal range, syrface and sharpness. The GO worked perfectly. Everything is great except the print is too warm for me. I installed the Warm neutral photo black. The previous ink set I was using was the K7 Special Edition.
My question, is there a way to cool off the tone of the prints to something less brown (warm) to something more blue (cool)?
Thanks for any help!
If you are using our curve for this media, the amount of WN 1 black ink is very narrow in the tonal scale and can not affect anything lighter than 95% gray. Examine the curve in QTR Curve View.
However, Carbon shade 2 is very warm and is mostly responsible for the 80 - 100% range.
And Shade 3 which is 75% carbon / 25% Selenium is responsible mostly for 60-80% range.
And Shade 4 is 50/50 carbon/selenium and carries some of this warmth to about 45%, though modulated by then.
Where are you seeing the warmth?
Is this the first time that you have used this paper? Is less warm on cooler paper such as EEF?
I would think however, that your prints have very warm 50-100%.
To cool off the inks - you need to replace the Carbon.
Shade 2 and 3 can be replaced with Warm Neutral to soften the warmth.
Shades 2, 3, 4 can be replaced with Selenium to make the prints cooler (like Selenium)
The ink set can be totally replaced to either Warm Neutral (less warm), Selenium (cold), or Neutral (quite cool in comparison).
Or shift to a cooler media like EEF and see if it is acceptable.
What do you think will work with your intentions?
I have made several prints from the new MPS system and I have decided that I really prefer the pure K7 Special Edition matte prints I was making. There are complex reasons for this but suffice to say I don’t want to print on glossy media. That means I have to swap out the WN Photo Black for the Shade 7 and the Flush Fluid in the LLB position for the GO.
Is there a simple way to do this? Do I need to do a full power clean after a I switch the carts? Or, is there a more economical method?
Thanks for your help!
Paul
Paul, the WN1 is also suitable for matte only printing. Have you made a K6 matte print to compare to what you were doing previously first? Otherwise, you probably would need to flush out the yellow channel in which you now have WN1 - because this is where the very light shade 7 goes. You can try by flushing the printer out with shade 7 - you lose ink versus the cost of PiezoFlush and carts.
You can for example make a purge target for the yellow and LLK positions and then Calibration Mode print out that inks in those two positions after switching carts. But, the Yellow may take some time to clear out the damper’s diluted MK1 that way - so be prepared.
I only bring up the WN1 because on most matte papers - it is actually denser and some of our customers prefer it over NU1. So you may wish to move that ink to the MK position.
Lots of food for thought…
Thanks, Jon…yes lots of room for thought. I tried to make a matte black print with the inks in the MPS positions using the Canson profile for Piezography 2. I got some strange tones in the upper end of the tonal scale (what should have been Zone VI and VII), where there was gray printing in the whites. Curious…not pleasant.
I have the flush and carts for the yellow and LLB channels. I will try the Calibration mode to clear the lines. What should the purge target file be?
I will try the WN in the matte black position, see how it looks.
Thanks again for the help. I am having an exhibition in Lisbon this coming summer (mid-July through mid-September) at the Museum of Oriental Culture. There will be something like 80 large prints (24x36) in this show and so I need to get the printing questions ironed out smoothly!
Paul
you can only use P2 curves with your installation. Did you try and use a K7 curve? What curve did you use that caused darker inks to go into the highlights?
You can read in the manual about custom purge files. You will need to make one from the inkseparation file that uses the 100% for the Y channel and LLK channel.
I used the P2 Canson Rag Photographique one. I was, I believe, pretty careful to get the right profile. I understand that I need to access the matte black ink. I was surprised by the darker inks in the highlights.
Paul,
I print with that same curve frequently. So I am thinking something in the workflow is adjusting your image prior to printing (such as using Mac OSX Photoshop or LR to print direct to QTR instead of printing to QTR through the QTR Print Tool interface). Are you using Mac OSX or and QTR Print Tool? If you are sure about the workflow, is there any chance of the inks being in the wrong positions?
Jon
Jon,
You were right (as usual). I went back to reprint to make sure I had the correct profile and sure enough, I had chosen the profile for the standard K7 setup. This second print I made with the profile designed for MPS and it worked just fine; nice clean highlights and an incredible tonal range.
My next step is to return to the K7 Special Edition matte black set up. I don’t know if this is an out of bounds question, but I will ask just the same: Can matte black Special Edition and WN photo black be mixed in the same cart and then be used to print on matte paper?
By the way, my printing workflow is Mac OS X…tiff files (LR/Silver Effects) opened in Print Tool and printed through QRT by Print Tool…Thanks for all the help. I will be giving you credit in the installation of the show in Lisbon. I did it in the previous show I had in Portugal, which one of these days I will send the catalog from. Leica paid for the printing and I am hoping to get them to do it again.
Paul
Jon,
I have looked all through the various folders but I can’t find the PZDN-X800-Meth3-inkpurge.tif file. Could you tell me where to look? Also, when I open this file I will have to change the colors to those from the LLB and the Yellow channel, is that correct? If not, how do I target the two channels I need to purge, LLB and yellow?
Paul
you should edit the inkseparationXX.tif file that is in QuadToneRIP / CurveDesign / Images where XX is the correct file for your printer version (number of print heads). Edit that file and save as without an embedded profile.
[QUOTE=Paul Kohl;2967]Jon,
I don’t know if this is an out of bounds question, but I will ask just the same: Can matte black Special Edition and WN photo black be mixed in the same cart and then be used to print on matte paper?[/QUOTE]
Technically they can - but you may find that WN1 has greater dMax even on matte paper.
Jon,
So that you can rest easy, I have done the purge and all is well. I am printing with the K7 Special Edition inks again and love the quality…thanks for your help!
Paul
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