Shadow detail / ICC profiles

InkjetMall Customer Support Color Management & Printmaking Workflow
1

I have recently installed a set of K7 neutral inks in my Epson R2400. I am using a hardware-calibrated Eizo CG222W (with Colormunki Photo). I have been experimenting with two different calibrations on the Eizo (5000K, 80cd/m2; 6500K, 80cd/m2)

I am already very impressed by the quality of the output I am getting with the K7 inkset, but I do have a couple of questions:

  1. My print output holds noticeably more detail in the very dark shadows than what I am seeing on the Eizo (irrespective of whether I use the 5000K or the 6500K calibration). It is not a huge difference in the shadows, but it is noticeable. Is this normal or can I expect a better match between the two?

  2. I would also like to generate an ICC profile to enable better soft-proofing on screen. As far as I can work out, I cannot generate a profile with my Colormunki set-up because it is only designed to work with a color inkset. If that is right, am I correct in thinking I will need to get an ICC profile made by a third party?

Many thanks for your help with these questions. I am loving these new inks!

Ian

2

It is very difficult for any display to produce the amount of tonal separation that Piezography K7 produces. Are you calibrating with the Eizo Color Navigator software through the Munki - or are you calibrating through the Color Munki software?

Have you read how to generate Soft Proof ICCs using the Create ICC tool from QuadTone RIP? I think that people have worked out how to use the Munki to make the measurements on their Users Group. Create ICC was designed for use with the Eye1 instrument - but there are only 21 measurements to make - and I think that the Munki can be used. So check on the QTR website and users group.

Let us know how you are using the calibration - Eizo software or the Munki software. That makes a huge difference…

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[QUOTE=jon;1005]It is very difficult for any display to produce the amount of tonal separation that Piezography K7 produces. Are you calibrating with the Eizo Color Navigator software through the Munki - or are you calibrating through the Color Munki software?

Have you read how to generate Soft Proof ICCs using the Create ICC tool from QuadTone RIP? I think that people have worked out how to use the Munki to make the measurements on their Users Group. Create ICC was designed for use with the Eye1 instrument - but there are only 21 measurements to make - and I think that the Munki can be used. So check on the QTR website and users group.

Let us know how you are using the calibration - Eizo software or the Munki software. That makes a huge difference…[/QUOTE]

Many thanks for your reply, Jon.

I am using ColorNavigator 6 to calibrate the Eizo directly. I am not using the Colormunki software. The strange thing is that my ordinary Mac laptop display seems to capture a bit of the extra dark shadow detail that the Eizo is missing…

Meanwhile I will look at the QTR users group for building an ICC profile using the Munki.

Cheers

4

Ian,

I looked into building an ICC profile using a Munki awhile ago but gave up when I realized that QTR recommended ProfileMaker 5 was a PowerPC app and I didn’t want to try running the PC version under Parallels on the Mac.

If you find a good way to build and ICC profile with the Munki on the Mac, please share your results… I’d be interested.

Thanks,
John

5

Me again

Well, I have successfully created an ICC profile using the ColorMunki and am now using that profile for soft-proofing in Photoshop. Wow! My Eizo is now showing me all the shadow detail I have in my prints, and the screen-to-print match is the best I have ever achieved with any set of inks. Thanks again Jon for the pointer to the QTR discussion group.

JohnB - I found the following link through the QTR group. It provides a black and white test print and explains how to create an ICC profile using the ColorMunki. Once you have created the 3-column data file described, just drag it onto the “QTR-Create-ICC” application in the QuadToneRIP folder and it should spit out an ICC profile for you. Give me a yell if you have any trouble with the process and I will try to help you out:

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/bw_printing/bw_print_colormunki.html

Cheers
Ian

6

Hi Ian- I’m glad to hear your prints and on-screen print preview are looking so great. Thanks for your feedback!

Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :slight_smile: