banding issues with 1280

L
Posted By
lbp
Aug 9, 2004
Views
538
Replies
16
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Closed
Hi-

I know this was covered before- did a search and found it in the archives, but for some reason wasn’t able to reply therefore am starting a new thread

I have a new epson 1280 with new ink cartridges running CS on 10.3.3

Besides the color being off (some fine tuning should take care of it- original was an RGB with a sepia like tone and it came out much redder than planned-Adobe RGB with an assigned profile of Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Premium Glossy Photo Paper printed on Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper) but also in some places there is serious banding going on- and it’s a 300ppi picture, so i don’t understand why (and at 11×14- the banding is a little hard to forgive,esp. when it’s planned for a portfolio).

I should mention that i have tested the heads and they print normally, and i haven’t had any banding issues printing out text but this is the first photograph i have tried to print and know that the 1280 should be giving me much better results than what i’m getting

What should i be doing to make this right?
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R
Ram
Aug 9, 2004
Your color management workflow is broken.

it came out much redder than planned-Adobe RGB with an assigned profile of Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Premium Glossy Photo Paper printed on Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper

Are you saying you are assigning the paper profile to the image? If you are going to use with Print with Preview, that’s where you select the appropriate paper profile. The image should retain the original Color Profile of the color space in which it was created.

Check out this web site carefully: <http://www.gballard.net/nca.html> .

The Preview Image you see in Print with Preview is not color managed, it’s for placement purposes only. If your prints look like that preview image in Print with Preview, that’s positive proof that you’re not using a correct color managed workflow.
L
lbp
Aug 9, 2004
Ok-

I realized that i should switch back to Adobe RGB and then choose the Epson profile in Print with Preview. This switched the image from the yellowish-sepia to the red that printed before (and that is in the finder window)- that was a mistake of mine.

But it still printed bright red (i used the document space of Adobe RGB (1988) and print space-Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Glossy Photo Paper with perceptual intent), adjusting the custom settings to quality seems to have helped the banding issue, but i don’t understand. In theory, what i’m doing (according to the website) should be right, but now it seems like it’s just printing what’s on the screen (almost printing adobe RGB and forgetting that i sent an epson profile to it)

I calibrate my monitor every 2 weeks (latest being earlier today) so i don’t believe that is an issue.

I even found an old thread of mine <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?7@@.3bb4f5dc/9> where Ann gives advice on printing on Epson papers and i used her sugestions as well- made no noticable effect on the color- like i said earlier- it’s almost as if the printer is ignoring any profile that i put to it and is printing the Adobe RGB
L
lbp
Aug 9, 2004
Ok- I realized that i made it waaaaaayyyy too hard for myself- sorry for troubling you

It’s the whole no-color-adjustment thing that i was screwing up and trying to control it when i should have just let it do it’s thing- print is now so much better (needs some minor retouching that i ignored, but color is now good)
R
Ram
Aug 9, 2004
Glad you figured that out.

One last thing:

…assigned profile of Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Premium Glossy Photo Paper printed on Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper…

Why use the wrong paper profile? Don’t you have one for Luster paper on your printer? If I did that on my Epson 2200 (use a Premium Glossy profile for Luster paper) I’d be guaranteeing a mess when printing. I know it because I did that accidentally once.
L
lbp
Aug 9, 2004
No- i wish i did have one for Luster- but strangely i do not. I remember being told one time if i wanted to use luster paper on the 1280 to use the premium glossy settings, so that’s what i’ve been doing. I don’t know if i’m missing a profile i should have or if a luster profile just doesn’t exist for the 1280.
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Aug 9, 2004
You may find the profile you need here:

Epson < http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_ UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14387&infoType=Downloads&pla tform=Macintosh>
L
lbp
Aug 9, 2004
Thanks Ann-

But i have the latest drivers and profiles (according to their site) and these are the Epson Specific Profiles that i have (please tell me if i’m missing one specfic to the 1280 for luster)

Epson Stylus Photo 1280 360 dpi Ink Jet
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Colorlife P.P.
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Glossy Photo Paper
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Matte Paper-Heavyweight
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Photo Paper
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Photo Quality Glossy Film
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Photo Quality Ink Jet
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Premium Glossy Photo Paper
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Standard

I don’t seem to have one that is specific to Luster, as Ramon tells me that there is one specific for Luster paper for the 2200. I just don’t know if one exists for the 1280. If there is one, how do i go about getting one if i keep downloading the same current drivers and profiles and i’m not getting one.
R
Ram
Aug 9, 2004
lbp,

Epson Premium Luster Paper is one of the recommended papers for your printer. It’s beyond belief that they don’t provide you with a specific profile for it. Shame on Epson if they don’t!

From my experience I can tell you that the profile for Premium Luster Paper is VERY different from the one for Premium Glossy Photo Paper, and using the latter profile to print on Luster paper turned out to be disastrous on my Epson 2200.

You could buy one for $25 from the link below, but you should demand to get one for free from Epson;

<http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/cm/profiles-download.html>

The first thing you should do, is install the P.I.M. II Plug-in v2.0 module you can download from Epson: (Click here < http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_ UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14387&infoType=Downloads&pla tform=Macintosh>)

It has been my experience that installing the PIM module installs many other profiles that the driver download does NOT provide.
B
Buko
Aug 9, 2004
I know this is after the fact but for $200 more you could have had an Epson 2200. I had an 870 same ink set as the 1280 and the 2200 just blows the 1280 away.

glad you discovered the double color management that was going on. That drove me crazy when I first started to use the Epsons and of course Epson dosen’t have the advice don’t double colormanage printed anywhere on their documentation. It should be the first thing you read in red 72 point on the first page of the manual.
H
Hexebah
Aug 9, 2004
That, and a warning about using the GIMP driver!!
L
lbp
Aug 10, 2004
I emailed Epson tech support since this is going to be a very long week at work where i’m not really going to get a chance to do much of my own stuff and calling them during their west coast hours is hard (i’m on the east coast). Here is their reply:

Thank you for contacting the Epson Connection.

Epson provides only a generic profile for the Stylus Photo 1280. We recommend using the generic profile following the Epson Color Management workflow document available by clicking the link below.

ftp://ftp.epson.com/webfiles/icc/Color-Managed-Workflow.pdf

If you require further assistance with this particular issue, please ensure all of our previous correspondence is contained in your reply, so we can better track the history of this issue.

If you have a different technical support issue, please submit another E-form via our website (http://www.epson.com), and we will respond in a timely manner. Thank you again for contacting Epson.

Also: what’s the warning about the GIMP driver? and can you further describe what the GIMP driver is?
B
Buko
Aug 10, 2004
I’m not sure about the GIMP warning either.

The GIMP driver is something you must consciously install.

This was/is a driver you use for postscript printers so old that manufactures can’t be bothered to write OSX drivers for them.

Why someone would try and use a GIMP driver for a 1280 is beyond me.
R
Ram
Aug 10, 2004
lbp,

Read my post # 8 again. There’s a very good chance that installing the PIM II plug-in will install additional profiles for you.

Here’s the link to the PIM plug-in < http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_ UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14387&infoType=Downloads&pla tform=Macintosh> once again.

Do not give up. Printing without a good, specific ink/paper/printer profile is a losing proposition.

The response from Epson is sheer nonsense ("Epson provides only a generic profile for the Stylus Photo 1280"). You already know it’s not true because you already have a bunch of very specific profiles for the 1280; you’ve listed them yourself: Epson Stylus Photo 1280 360 dpi Ink Jet, Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Colorlife P.P., Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Glossy Photo Paper, Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Matte Paper-Heavyweight, Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Photo Paper, Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Photo Quality Glossy Film, Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Photo Quality Ink Jet, Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Premium Glossy Photo Paper, and Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Standard, Nine in all!
L
lbp
Aug 10, 2004
Ramon-

Thanks so much for being patient with me, but as i downloaded the PIM plug in last night and installed it, i tried re-installing it tonight. I didn’t get any new profiles by doing so. Before i make these prints for real (last night was a test to see if i knew what i was doing- more minor retouching needs to be done) i probably will buy the profile from the link that was given earlier.

And yes, i laughed when i read Epson’s response. It’s always a bit scary when you know more than the company’s official response.
R
Ram
Aug 10, 2004
One last suggestion: Try the Epson sites in the UK and Japan (the latter if you have someone around who can read Japanese; I can’t . 🙂 )
H
Hexebah
Aug 11, 2004
‘Why someone would try and use a GIMP driver for a 1280 is beyond me’ – By accident 😉

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