Where are my K7 Special Edition Curves?

I have two Epson 3880 printers, one with Selenium inks and the other with Special Edition. I just updated the Community Edition, just in case. On my Selenium printer, on the Print Dialog, I see all the curves named just like they are in the Curves folder; however, in my Special Ed printer, I only get a list of Curves named K7-2880-name, which matches the information I get when I install the K7 printer installer for this printer, but on the Curves folder inside the Piezography folder in my Applications folder, I don’t see these curve names, instead I see a (smaller than SEL curves) list of curves named K7-SpecEd-name.

Again, in my Selenium printer, the names of the curves in both the printing dialog and the Curves folder match. In my Special Edition printer, they don’t. What’s going on and how do I fix it?

I discovered this as I was looking for an Epson Hot Press Natural curve for the Special Edition inks, and found there isn’t any, but there is one for the SEL inks. Then I realized the names were different…

Thanks for any guidance or education on the subject,

René

The curves that comes packed with QuadtoneRIP are very old and were built as general curves for all ink-sets. The new curves in the Piezography Community Edition about a decade newer and specific to individual inksets.

That said, if a Hotpress curve is not available for your SpecEd inkset, using the Hahnemuhle Photo Rag curve will not be a problem. Piezography is much more similar from one matte paper to another (using the same curve) than color printing which takes into account much more “unstable” inking system (namely high gamut color inks) which changes from one matte paper to another.

I suggest using the SpecEd HPR curve.

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Related to the old curves still appearing in your printer curve menu, this is because the old curves have not been deleted from a specific location inside of the system before re-installing the printer.

What I suggest (to get around this easily) is simply duplicate the “Install3880-K7.command” and rename the duplicates “Install3880-SpecEd.command” and “Install3880-Selenium.command” Put these commands into sub-folders with ONLY the specific curves for those printers and run those commands with only their individual printer plugged in when the individual command is run. This will give you two printers, one SpecEd and one Selenium with only the correct curves listed in the menu.

best,
Walker

Thanks Walker!

I’ll do as you suggest. I assume I should first delete the current SEL & SpEd printers I have, before running the installers the way you suggest above, correct?

And I can then delete all other items not related to my 3880 printer as well, correct?

Thanks again,

René

Yes. That I what I suggest to keep things organized.

best,
Walker

Thank you!

Hi Walker,

Followed the instructions and succeeded. But I have two more questions now.

  • I see all the Curves in the Piezography/Curves folder for my 3880 K7 printer. There are also what appear to be the old K7-2880 Piezography curves inside the QuadToneRIP/Profiles folder. Can I just delete that whole folder?

  • Regarding printing on Epson Hot Press Natural in the Special Edition printer, you recommended I use the Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Special Edition curve, but I see what appear to be 3 different ones: HANphotoRAG-adjusted, HANphotoRag, HANphotoRagBW and HanPtoRag. Which one should I use and what is the difference between all four?

Thanks again,

René

  1. You can delete the whole folder of old curves inside of QuadToneRIP/Profiles

  2. Use HANphotoRag

best,
Walker

Thank you!