Does anyone have a formula, or tips, for getting somewhat predictable color printing on inkjet-pintable DVDs? My original looks fine on screen, and prints with similar colors when sent out for commercial photo printing. It prints reasonably well on DVD labels on a cheap Epson C86. On the white matte printable DVD, skin tones are gray-blue and everything is muted and washed-out.
Here’s my workflow: I create my artwork in Photoshop CS on a G5, based on the template provided by Epson. Then I transfer the art to a MacBook Pro, which prints via Photoshop Elements to an Epson Photo 960, located in another part of the house, with a CD/DVD adapter. I’m printing on Verbatim 8x matte white inkjet-printable DVDs. I’ve tried using ColorSync/printer settings, using different color spaces and intents, and nothing makes a significant difference. I did install the new Intel Mac drivers from Epson for that printer.
I might add that the MacBook Pro replaces a G5 iMac. At first, the Epson 960 printed excellent photos directly from iPhoto, but ever since installing Elements, the printer has produced poor color from any program.
I really don’t want to go back to the hassle and expense of printing DVD labels, which I understand can cause DVDs to eventually fail. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks — Rick
I’m printing on Verbatim 8x matte white inkjet-printable DVDs.
Were you provided with a profile for the specific combination of ink, printer and media (the printable DVDs in this case)?
The output profile has to be provided by the manufacturer of the output media (paper or printable DVD) and you need one such profile for each particular combination of ink, printer and media (the printable DVDs in this case).
Thanks, Ramón and Gary, the tutorial is very interesting. It’s similar to another I’ve studied, with a few differences, but I’ll investigate it. Unfortunately, I’m unable to find a profile for Verbatim printable DVDs, an Epson 960, and the specific ink for a 960 (it’s hard enough trying to find the ink cartridges themselves, and the printer’s not that old!), so I’ll have to make do with what’s available in the software. Epson’s Print CD program doesn’t run in OS X, but being an illustrator by trade, I much prefer to work in Illustrator and Photoshop, anyway. I’m sure the file and my monitor are good, because it’s a professional digital photo and the "real" photos we had printed commercially are a very close match to my G5’s Cinema Display.
I physically moved the 960 to my G5 and printed directly from Photoshop, and the results were better, but still quite pale. Unfortunately, I can’t justify the cost of the equipment needed to make my own profiles, and making test prints on DVDs is kind of pricey. I guess I’ll just tweak them as I go and stay with what works. Fortunately, they’re not for freelance work, just family weddings, so the color’s no critical. I just personally care because the photos on the labels are of my children!
Do you mean version 1.4.0A of the Print CD program runs natively in OS X? If so, where do you get it? There was none, not even a Classic version on the CD that came with my CD print adapter, even though the manual said there was a classic version. Nor could I locate any such thing on the Epson Web site.
print a 3-stepped gray bar black-mid-white — there’s your black and neutral (or you are missing something)
Right now I’m missing the time and spare DVDs to experiment. Maybe later this week.
The R220’s description on Epson’s Web site says it supports Intel Macs, and that the program will run on a Mac, but doesn’t specifically say whether it will run on an Intel-powered Mac. Is the program still Classic (OS 9) as the manual says, or native OS X?
Of course, I’d still want to create the design in Illustrator and Photoshop.
I’ll look into the TDK media (I’ve had a lot of trouble with reliability of some brands), as the DVD content is much more important than the label. The R220 cost only slightly more than a set of inks for my 960, so I’ll definitely keep it in mind. It’s interesting how printers have become like razors in that it seems they practically give you the expensive part and make up for it on consumables.
I’m using it on 10.4.7 with no issues. Don’t know about Intel Macs.
Once you get the templete built in photoshop psd, save your tiff in sRGB and bring it into Print CD.
I scanned a DVD and mapped out the area for precise placement.
Tip, make your template larger than you expect. Mine popped in perfectly so I don’t know if it gets auto scaled down or I just got lucky, but it’s been exact on the 5-6 disk files I printed.
I used the Photoshop template I downloaded from the Epson site, and it works very well for positioning the art. When printing, just make sure the box to center the art on the page is not checked.
This morning I printed a DVD directly from Photoshop that I’m very happy with. Here’s how:
My original art is in Adobe RGB. In the Print dialog, I chose "Document: Adobe RGB (1998)" as my source space, and the print space is Printer Color Management with Perceptual intent. In the printer dialog Print Settings panel I chose CD/DVD for media and Custom mode, and in the Color Management panel I chose the Color Controls radio button, Gamma 1.8, Photo-Realistic, brightness -10, contrast +5, saturation +15, magenta +2, yellow -2. I’ll probably tweak this slightly as I print more DVDs, but it’s already very close to the quality of image I’d hoped for. It should be interesting if these same settings give the same results on the MacBook Pro from Elements as I get on the G5 from Photoshop.
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