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Author Topic: Epson ABW  (Read 22071 times)
sectionq
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« on: June 23, 2011, 07:40:30 PM »

Hello,

Me again, is anybody using advanced black and white with any success?

I printed off a photo today, printer driver manages colour, abw set to neutral (dark) and the print came out looking a bit muddy, to my eye it looks like it has a greeny yellow tint to it.

I then printed the same pictures again as I had a bit of space left on the page of a colour print I was making. This time with a custom colour icc and no colour management in the driver as normal and the black and white images look much more neutral to me, so what's going on there?

I'm guessing that I need a b&w profile made but no one really seems to do them. I emailed the guy that normally does my profiles and he reckoned that you don't need one as profiles are more for colour. Bit weird as abw still uses some colours and I already know that the driver is off so why would it be any more trust worthy in this mode?

Anyway, that's the story, is there any magic trick that I'm missing?

Cheers

Jamie
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Terry-M
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« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2011, 09:40:10 PM »

Hi me again Jamie  Wink
I have a more modest printer that does not have any special B&W mode, just photo and matte black cartridges in the set.
When I print B&W (or mono), I use my colour icc profiles and they neutral results. Some papers are warm so the B&W print looks warm too - but that's ok.
Terry
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sectionq
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« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2011, 10:33:11 PM »

Cheers Terry,

Maybe that's the problem, the custom colour profile looks more neutral to my eye so I guess the colour of the paper has been compensated for. It's a real head scratcher, of course it's more noticable when they are side by side. In fact the more neutral one looks slightly magenta by comparison but fine on its own.

I'll stick with printing b and w in colour for now then. I know you can tweak the abw settings but that seems to make your ps editing or whatever a bit pointless.

Thanks again.

Jamie
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mike397x
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« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2011, 05:36:31 PM »

Section q,

I posted a question on the printer forum ...but..still...????
I did find this article,and it addresses the same issue I was wondering about as well..
Take a look,..hope this helps:

  http://www.ronmartblog.com/2010/08/how-to-using-epsons-advanced-b-photo.html

Let me know how it works out ...

Mike
« Last Edit: July 17, 2011, 05:44:54 PM by mike397x » Logged
sectionq
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« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2011, 08:03:07 PM »

Thanks Mike,

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back, good article by the way just not that helpful if things aren't doing what they're supposed to (which they're still not).

I'm still having to print my black and whites in colour with an rgb profile, abw gives a very ugly green cast think algy. Looked all over the place for solutions which range from wrong paper selections to bad inks and clogged nozzles, what I really don't understand is how any of these could be relevant if printing in colour is fine.

I still don't understand the logic behind abw or at least why it would be better. If you try and print in colour without an icc profile (custom or generic) then chances are you're not going to get the results you expected. So if the driver can't be trusted to print in colour without help, why would it be any different in black and white seeing as it still uses the colour inks although to a lesser degree? Guess I need to get a greyscale profile made as my printer's obviously way off as no one else seems to be having problems. Please correct me if I'm wrong in my understanding.

Thanks again

Jamie
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mike397x
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« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2011, 08:32:49 AM »

Jamie,

What printer are you using...?

From what I've been reading,the ABW is utilizing the black inks to give you a purer B&W print.
A few days ago,I got delivery of the Epson R3000.{4 black inks}
My previous printer was the R1800.
To test the R3000 ,I printed an image made with the R1800{B&W,converted to B&W in Efex Pro2},using Ilford Smooth Pearl,and the Ilford profile...it came out fine,with a very,very slight tint of green
I then made an ABW print of the same image,on the R3000,letting the PRINTER manage color{in ABW mode}..it came out  better,more contrast,more detail in the blacks{less muddy},& an even graduation from gray to black.

Even if you think you might be having a clogging/low ink issue,,you will have to address this  first....,run some tests,after you put in fresh ink..if not ,you are just wasting time,ink,paper.

Let me know ,how things work out,hopefully,one of the more learned members will chime in here and assist..

Mike
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sectionq
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« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2011, 10:15:41 AM »

Hi Mike,

I'm using Breathing Colour's Lyve canvas on the epson 7900. I was thinking that it was a paper issue but after some more prints it seems to be the same. I tried...

Abw, printer manages colour, watercolour media setting (breathing colour's recommendation) on the Lyve canvas is very green.
With my custom colour profile, same greyscale image printed in colour it's better but with a very slight magenta tint (could probably do with reprofiling anyway).
Then seeing as I'm using the watercolour setting I managed to find a genuine epson sheet of watercolour paper and gave that a go, abw, printer manages colours and it looked pretty good, better detail, contrast etc and then it dried and we're back to green again although not quite as bad. Not really sure what to do, all the inks are pretty new and on about 90%, matte black was changed just after my first post, not had any clogs this week seeing as I've been printing something every day. Maybe I'll try getting an engineer out to see if there is another issue, to be honest I've been fairly underwelmed by this machine from the start.

Cheers again

Jamie
« Last Edit: July 22, 2011, 12:09:28 PM by sectionq » Logged
sectionq
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« Reply #7 on: August 01, 2011, 07:07:50 PM »

So I've finally got a nice black and white print using abw. I was printing out a greyscale target so that I could get an abw profile made up using the usual target printing job setting in q and thought while I'm here I'll try and print a bw photo to see what it would look like with the same settings. Turns out it looks great! I've been setting it as printer manages colour and then selecting abw in the driver and every time it's had quite a strong green cast. I don't know if the printer is somehow double profiling itself, very strange. Anyway, seems to work so until I get my custom profile I'm happy for now.

Jamie
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Terry-M
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« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2011, 08:32:24 PM »

Jamie,
Quote
print a bw photo to see what it would look like with the same settings
Colour Management is completely off in Qimage when set to print a target.
Terry
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sectionq
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« Reply #9 on: August 01, 2011, 10:32:24 PM »

Yep, and it works. There's no way to soft proof abw so the toning settings etc are all trial and error, abw is supposed to be neutral straight out of the box so to me it makes sense of course it would be a different matter with a colour image. All I know is that 'printer manages colour' doesn't do a very good job.

Jamie
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