Problems with Epson 7600

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lhodaniel
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:08 pm

Problems with Epson 7600

Post by lhodaniel »

I've set up PrintFab Windows on an Epson 7600 and have run into some rather frustrating issues. These are summarized below:

- no matter what I do with paper/ file orientation settings, including using the "save roll paper" advanced setting, Printfab prints the images vertically on the roll as it comes out of the printer. This is wasting paper not saving it. The only thing I haven't tried is a custom paper size. I have no problem getting the Epson driver to print across the roll width. (I'm doing 11x17 inch i1 Profiler test charts. I want to use an 11-inch length of the 24 inch wide roll, not 17 inches.)

- I have noticed that PrintFab's settings stay "stickier" in some apps more than others. No settings to the driver are remembered when printing from Profiler, to the point that I am uncertain that my settings are lasting long enough to even get a proper chart printed. In PSCS6, most of the settings remain "sticky". In Lightroom 4.1, not so much. LR is my preferred printing app. This might be causing the next issue.

- I am getting completely different looking charts from PSCS6 than with Lightroom or i1Profiler. I have double-checked that I am setting the PF settings the same. I am setting both LR and PS to "Printer Manages Colors" to lock out their CM. I have set PF to "no correction". (This setting never stays sticky except in PS.) I have set the Working space to "Prophoto RGB, as this is Lightroom's internal space (I think) and is my Working Space inside Photoshop.

- I have been getting random blobs of ink 1-2 mm in diameter on some of the charts. This has definitely occurred on the PrintFab chart printed in PSCS6. Not every page, but frequently. Again, this chart is a outlier in that it has far more saturated colors and what appears to be a heavier ink load than charts printed with identical PF settings from the other apps. I realize the blobs could be an indication of a dirty print head, and I plan to check that. However, I have interspersed charts printed on the same paper using the Epson driver and NONE of them have had ANY of these spots. Coincidentally or not, only the PrintFab-printed jobs have had the ink spots.

I would really like to use PrintFab to overcome some of the limitations of the standard Epson driver with my 7600. Unless I can fix the problems listed above, I will not be able to do so.

Lloyd
zedonet
Site Admin
Posts: 2156
Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:02 am

Re: Problems with Epson 7600

Post by zedonet »

Hello,

thank you for your feedback!

- currently the only way to print a portrait page in landscape mode on roll paper is to add a custom paper size where width and height are exchanged (we are planning to improve this in a future PrintFab release).
The option "save roll paper" only prevents white paper being fed at the end of the page.

- the "stickyness" of options in the PrintFab driver settings depends on the application program - some applications store the settings for the next print job, some discard them. Please let me know if there is a difference between the Epson driver and PrintFab in this aspect.

- when printing a profile chart, you have to make sure that color management is switched off. The setting "printer manages colors" causes PhotoShop to convert the image from RGB working space (Prophoto RGB) to sRGB, the standard Windows RGB space. Please see the instructions included below on how to create an ICC profile.

- I am not sure if the "blobs" are a result of too much ink being applied. Please post a digicam photo or scan so that I can imagine how the blobs look like.

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ICC Profile Creation with PrintFab

To create an ICC profile e.g. with EyeOne, ColorMunkior Spyder, you should create a new profile entry in PrintFab Control Center, button "Profiles". You will have to select the type of media (e.g. coated inkjet paper or glossy photo paper), the print quality and the maximum ink amount (e.g. 250%).

The new profile will be visible as an additional media type in the print dialog. Use this media entry to print the profile chart - color management will be automatically turned off (until you execute "import profile data").

PrintFab driver settings:

tab "Main": "Media type"=<the media entry you used to print the ICC profile chart>
tab "Color": "Intent"="No correction", "Mode"="RGB" or "CMYK" depending on the ICC profile type

PhotoShop print dialog settings:

You have to turn off color management also in the PhotoShop print dialog. CS5 print dialog doesn't offer "No colormanagement" - a workaround is to assign a profile to the chart bitmap and to select "Photoshop Manages Colors" and choose the document color profile as "Printer Profile".

The resulting ICC profile can be used either in PrintFab (recommended) or in Photoshop:

1) color management in PrintFab

- import the ICC profile in the "Profiles" dialog of PrintFab Control Center

- in the Photoshop print dialog, select "Photoshop Manages Colors". As "Printer Profile" choose the document profile (in earlier versions of Photoshop, you can choose "No color management" instead).

- in the PrintFab driver settings, also choose the document profile

2) color management in PhotoShop

- in the Photoshop print dialog, select "PhotoShop manages colors" and "Printer profile"=<the icc profile you created>

- in the PrintFab driver settings, use the same settings as when printing
the ICC profile chart:
tab "Main": "Media type"=<the media entry you used to print the ICC profile chart>
tab "Color": "Intent"="No correction", "Mode"="RGB" or "CMYK" depending on the ICC profile type

Some PrintFab settings like the "ink save mode" can be chosen only when color management is done in PrintFab.
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