pico Posted June 14, 2011 Share #1 Â Posted June 14, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) I am not getting all the tones from commercial inkjet printer. They drop subtle middle-tones, and the print is a bit too dark. What's the keyword I should dive into? Gamma? I cannot possibly (I think) get the specs of their printer, nor get a calibration device for my Mac Air. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 14, 2011 Posted June 14, 2011 Hi pico, Take a look here Not getting all the tones from commercial.... I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
MarkP Posted June 14, 2011 Share #2 Â Posted June 14, 2011 Hi Pico, Â I can't advise you about the printer. Â However, I calibrate my screens with Spyder Pro: 15 inch high res for MacBook Pro, 24 inch NEC-ultiSync, AND my wife's 11inch MacBook Air for when we travelled. I think it's still worth calibrating the MBA screen (although it is not ideal for colour management). Â Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Roberts Posted June 14, 2011 Share #3 Â Posted June 14, 2011 I am not getting all the tones from commercial inkjet printer. They drop subtle middle-tones, and the print is a bit too dark. What's the keyword I should dive into? Gamma? I cannot possibly (I think) get the specs of their printer, nor get a calibration device for my Mac Air. Â Gamma would be the culprit I'd look into, but of course the real problem as you know is the MacBook Air. Â You could calibrate it just to get the brightness in the ballpark, but it'll still be iffy. Â But first things first: did you get a print profile from the print company or are you just sending them a file to process? Â The reason I ask is because that alone could make the difference you're describing... so what's the print workflow? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted June 14, 2011 Author Share #4 Â Posted June 14, 2011 Gamma would be the culprit I'd look into, but of course the real problem as you know is the MacBook Air. Â You could calibrate it just to get the brightness in the ballpark, but it'll still be iffy. Â But first things first: did you get a print profile from the print company or are you just sending them a file to process? Â Frankly, I don't even know what a print profile is. This is my first venture into large (20x24") digital printing. What should I ask for from the printer? Â The reason I ask is because that alone could make the difference you're describing... so what's the print workflow? Â I simply make the image adjustments using CS4 on a Mac Pro. (That is taking DNG from an M9 into CS4, then opening them. For color work the results are marvelous, but for B&W (each scanned from 4x5, MF or 35mm) it is not working out either from the Pro or Air. The B&W look good on both platforms but print poorly. Â I might just revert to wet printing the B&W. In fact, to be honest I should. The prints are being used now for a preview by some critics for a possible show, and they don't have to be perfect at this stage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
swamiji Posted June 15, 2011 Share #5 Â Posted June 15, 2011 The problem might not be the Computer or the Printer, but the Paper. Each paper has it's own range of absorption. I tried Canon paper, thinking it was the best for my Canon printer. I was not happy in the details. I tried Hammermil as well. I settled on Ilford. But sure to download the correct icc profile for each paper, and select it for preview when doing your final edit. Â I ended up buying a ColorMunki Photo, to make icc profiles for paper that do not have profiles, and to get better accuracy for non-printer projects. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Roberts Posted June 15, 2011 Share #6  Posted June 15, 2011 Frankly, I don't even know what a print profile is. This is my first venture into large (20x24") digital printing. What should I ask for from the printer?  I simply make the image adjustments using CS4 on a Mac Pro. (That is taking DNG from an M9 into CS4, then opening them. For color work the results are marvelous, but for B&W (each scanned from 4x5, MF or 35mm) it is not working out either from the Pro or Air. The B&W look good on both platforms but print poorly.  I might just revert to wet printing the B&W. In fact, to be honest I should. The prints are being used now for a preview by some critics for a possible show, and they don't have to be perfect at this stage.  So the printer / lab should be able to give you an ICC profile that you can load into Photoshop to "proof" what your print will look like.  That implies you have a properly profiled and calibrated monitor, though... You can't use a MacBook Air for this... you need a good monitor to adjust for fine printing.  You shouldn't need to revert to a wet print, but it might be easiest in the short-term.  When you have time, there are still a couple of things that could increase your satisfaction with a BW print from a (high-end) inkjet...and yes--digital BW is much harder than colour, IMO But with the right set up, the results are wonderful.  --what paper and ink combination are they using? The newer Baryta-based fibre papers from Harmon / Illford and Caslon are superb BW media, a lot like traditional wet print fiber media  --what kind of file are you sending them? An RGB file "made into" BW or a "grayscale" file?  --there's a small possibility that the gamma set up of your system is mismatched with the lab's... that *should* be taken care of by the lab when they convert to their BW ICC profile, but they may be simply assigning a 2.2 gamma from your 1.8 gamma files--that would crush the midtones and bury the shadows right there...The real problem is that something like a MacBook Air, while a wonderful laptop, and like 99% of laptops, doesn't have a monitor or video card that can actually be set up properly in terms of luminance and accurate gamma.  --finally, in some ways the most convincing BW prints I've seen to date in terms of tonality (not paper structure) are made by a Durst Lambda, not by inkjets, on something like Kodak Endura... it's a hybrid digital wet process, and with a relatively tough finish, too.  In other ways though, that new inkjet media has it all over the Lambda, even--mostly because Endura, as much as I love it, doesn't have the classic fiber tonality... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WPalank Posted June 18, 2011 Share #7 Â Posted June 18, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) Frankly, I don't even know what a print profile is. This is my first venture into large (20x24") digital printing. What should I ask for from the printer? Â Also, and you may not know the answer, what color space is the image in? Many businesses use the sRGB space and you may be submitting in ProPhoto or ARGB or possibly without an embedded profile. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted February 7, 2012 Share #8 Â Posted February 7, 2012 Frankly, I don't even know what a print profile is. This is my first venture into large (20x24") digital printing. What should I ask for from the printer? . Â Puts things into perspective. Â Many thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted February 7, 2012 Share #9 Â Posted February 7, 2012 You neeed to buy yourself a decent book on printing and follow its advice. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Posted February 7, 2012 Share #10 Â Posted February 7, 2012 You neeed to buy yourself a decent book on printing and follow its advice. Â Good advice, Andy. Â Maybe better still is to find someone who knows what he's doing with digital imaging and book a course to get to grips with the basics. Â Your own suggestion of sticking with wet printing is probably a more practical alternative for you at this stage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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