Color capabilities comparison

[Lecunza]

Hi, PrintFab team!
I've recently acquired PrintFab Pro program trying to improve print quality in terms of color and gamut. I hoped your ability to increase amount of ink up to 300% will help me to widen printer gamut. Since I have my own spectrophotometer and used to build ICC profiles before I made the comparison of standard Epson driver, and PrintFab driver and discovered no superiority of PrintFab driver over standard Epson Driver. The same printer, same paper, same ink, same color target, same day, same hands & eyes Even worse - PrintFab results in significantly narrower gamut. What did I do wrong?
By the way - I can't understand how I can benefit from managing ink amount during profiling: printing color target do not permit me any adjustment for possible saturation enhancement (yes, I put 300% of possible ink amount, but I'm not sure it uses full 300% while printing color target). Doing this subsequently (after profiling) will distort color accuracy (I think). So, I can't imagine at what point of process it may be helpful to control ink amount if we are talking about photography?
For illustration I attach pictures reflecting 3d-view of profiles (translucent yellow - Epson driver profile body, blue one - PrintFab).

With kind regards,
Alexander

[zedonet]

Hello, I think the difference comes from more ink being applied by the original Epson driver. Which Epson printer model did you profile and what was the media type used? Please include the settings of the Epson driver and the PrintFab profile settings (media type, quality, ink limit).

[Lecunza]

Hello again!
Sorry for incomplete story tech specs should be attached from the very beginning! Here they are:

Windows 11
Device - i1pro2
Printer - Epson SureColor P600, resolution in both cases 1440*1440 dpi
Real Paper - Lomond Proofing Paper, silk-matte, 180 g/cm2
Color Target - 2400 patches

Epson Printer Driver (v.6.77):
Paper Setting - UltraPremium Presentation Matte

PrintFab Driver (Epson_SureColorP600):
Paper Class: Matte inkjet paper
Ink Limit: 300

Something else?

With regards, Alexander
PS: Have resulting profiles as well as measurement files (*.mxf)

[zedonet]

Can you please send the resulting color profiles (Epson driver, PrintFab driver) by email to
mail <at> zedonet <dot> de
Thank you!

[zedonet]

I include information on how to increase the ink amount for matte print media. It is important to know that existing color profiles and the PrintFab internal media profiles will also print with more ink.

Load the following file into a text editor

C:\Program Files\ZEDOnet\PrintFab\colors\P600matteblk.tpm

Please note that you cannot save the modified file to the "program files\...\colors" directory, instead you have to save the file to a different directory and then copy the file back to the "printers" directory using the file explorer.

Depending on the print quality, you have to look a specific section - for 1440dpi:

[1440dpi_matteblk]
Channels=k,c,m,y,k2,c2,m2,k3
Saturation=50
...

for 2880dpi:

[2880dpi_matteblk]
Channels=k,c,m,y,k2,c2,m2,k3
Saturation=50
...

for 5760dpi:

[5760_matteblk]
Channels=k,c,m,y,k2,c2,m2,k3
Saturation=63
...

Increase the value behind "Saturation" according to your requirements. I suggest to start with increasing 50 to 70 and for 5760dpi increasing 63 to 80 and then try to print a new color profile chart with an ink limit of 200 (more ink per channel, but limit to a total of 200% when combining ink channels like cyan+yellow).

[Lecunza]

OK. Thank you!
Will try a little bit later and inform you about results!
Give me, pls, one week or so.

With regards,
Alexander

[Lecunza]

OK, found this section.
As to 1440 and 2880 - OK.
As to 5760 - I see the following:
--------
[5760dpi_matteblk]
Channels=k,c,m,y,k2,c2,m2,k3
Saturation=63 ;(55/2) / 40
Gamma=400
Bits=2
---------
Only "63" should be touched?

With regards, Alexander

[Lecunza]

And some additional reasoning:
why to change numbers "in blind"? Given we have spectrophotometer why not to print "something", measure "something", and then deduce needed limits/numbers?
Yes, it may be painful/unneeded for most of customers, but for some "desperate persons"?

Alexander

[Lecunza]

I've changed recommended parameters, printed again with ACPU. Target print looks more dense and darker then previous one. But after measuring it still demonstrates some "imperfectness" compared with Epson driver (see pictures attached). I cannot evaluate how much that relative narrowness of gamut is visible/sensible by human brain/eyes (may be invisible at all!), but strictly (mathematically!) speaking I expected result at least not worse then Epson is capable. May be it demands hours of tuning/adjusting parameters for each paper-ink pair to acheive exceptional results, which is probably not crucial for 95% of prints and people. But if there are some hints/procedures in that matter I would appreciate!

With regards,
Alexander

[Lecunza]

Sorry - should I wait for any further recommendations, or that is best achievable result?

With regards,
Alexander

[zedonet]

Hello, I am sorry for not replying earlier and that adjusting the ink saturation is such a "trial and error" process.

The difference in Gamma should not be noticeable in real world photos but maybe in strong colors like a company logo with a specific Pantone color.
It looks as if the PrintFab gamut has slight deficiencies in cyan and magenta, so I would recommend to increase specifically the cyan and magenta saturation:

Assuming that the file C:\Program Files\ZEDOnet\PrintFab\colors\P600matteblk.tpm has been modified in the section
--------
[5760dpi_matteblk]
Channels=k,c,m,y,k2,c2,m2,k3
Saturation=70
Gamma=400
Bits=2
---------
add two lines "Saturation_C=..." and "Saturation_M=..."
---------
[5760dpi_matteblk]
Channels=k,c,m,y,k2,c2,m2,k3
Saturation=70
Gamma=400
Bits=2
Saturation_C=80
Saturation_M=80

[Lecunza]

Hello! I apology for delay due to my lengthy vacations and now got ready for experiments!
First of all, would like to clarify all needed changes. Now I have in my file following sections (I'm mostly interested in 1440 & 5760 resolution, because use mainly 1440 for the sake of speed, 5760 in rare cases hoping for better quality, but do not see any improvements)
Now I have the following (before next recommended changes):

[1440dpi_matteblk]
Channels=k,c,m,y,k2,c2,m2,k3
Saturation=70
Gamma=400
Bits=2
Levels=0,20,50,100
LValues_K = 942.....
.......

[5760dpi_matteblk]
Channels=k,c,m,y,k2,c2,m2,k3
Saturation=80;(55/2) / 40
Gamma=400
Bits=2
Levels=0,100 ;20,50,100
LValues_K = 941......
......

Do those sections look in expected way?
Should I tune only 5760 section (and reduce Saturation to 70)? Should I make same adjustments for 1440 section?
Do "Levels" strings look appropriately in both cases?

Thank you for your patience!