Epson SC P900 Dark Colors Are Too Dark

Questions on certain printers and applications
roberteldersoftware
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2021 7:49 pm

Re: Epson SC P900 Dark Colors Are Too Dark

Post by roberteldersoftware »

I had a thought today: Could the remaining differences in the prints be due to differences between the .icc profile I got from the paper manufacturer and the custom turboprint profile that I loaded? Here is my thinking on the subject:

A few times in the past, when I've printed from gimp image editor using the turboprint print menu, that I get obviously wrong results if I take an sRGB profile image, and accidentally print it with the menu option for 'RGB Color Space' set as 'MOAB Entrada Rag Bright P900 UPPPM.iccY'. I understand that this process is incorrect. In this case, the 'MOAB Entrada Rag Bright P900 UPPPM.iccY' is from the 'installed Color Spaces' in turboprint. What I do instead to solve the issue, is I first convert the active color profile in gimp to use the 'Moab Entra Rag Bright P900.icc' profile, and then when I print it with the same RGB color space, this produces prints that look normal. Also, this printing was done with a custom media type for this paper.

Before I had the calibrated profile from that I got from you by email, I would also use the 'import color data...' button to loead .icc profile from the paper manufacturer into the 'Printer Profile' which is what I selected as the 'Media Type' option in the turboprint print menu.

Now that I have the calibrated profile from you, I use the 'import color data...' with the calibrated profile from you.

Now, having said all this, my previous experiments show that there doesn't appear to be any automatic conversion between the active color profile used in gimp, and the selected color profile in the 'RGB color space' drop-down menu/media profile. I need to manually convert it to match, and then select the same color space, and there are total of 3 profiles/color spaces to be considerate of. However, the exact color space from the paper manufacturer and the turboprint calibrated profile probably don't have exactly the same gamut and color characteristics due to differences in the driver.

Ideally, what I think I would need is a color profile that I can load into gimp itself and do the color profile conversion there, but I can't seem to load the turboprint profile into gimp.

Therefore, I'm wondering about these two questions:

1) I wonder if there is a way to convert the turboprint profile into a .icc profile? Ideally, I would like to have a .icc profile that I can distribute to my illustrator/graphic designer so they can do precise soft proofing on their end. Right now, I give them the .icc profile from the paper manufactuer since I assume it will be close, but it probably isn't the best that's possible. Also, I may need to use other third-party paper in the future that doesn't come with .icc profiles in the future.

2) Is there a way to take the turboprint profile and convert it to a form that could be loaded into photoshop just like a .icc color profile? Is a third-party .icc profile creation the only option?

Thanks,
Robert
roberteldersoftware
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2021 7:49 pm

Re: Epson SC P900 Dark Colors Are Too Dark

Post by roberteldersoftware »

Hi, I am still interested in reading any insights you may related to my last couple posts.

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

Re: Epson SC P900 Dark Colors Are Too Dark

Post by zedonet »

Hello Robert,

we recommend the following workflow:

- Leave your photos in the original color space they were created in (sRGB, AdobeRGB)
- Select this color space in the TurboPrint GIMP print plugin

Conversion to the printer profile is done once in TurboPrint.

In your workflow there are two conversions

sRGB -> MOAB Entrada Rag Bright P900 UPPPM.icc
MOAB Entrada Rag Bright P900 UPPPM.icc -> actual printer profile

This may be the cause for a non smooth transition in very light and/or very dark colors.

I will send you softproof ICC profiles for the two color profiles that you created via our profiling service.
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