f I get acceptable prints using the printer driver rather than or LR then one side of me say I should not be bothered, but the other says that the software, especially QI, should do a better job and hence i want to get it right. To that end i did wonder about using Prism but at another $80 that seems a bit too far when Fotospeed will produce custom profiles. But again if the printer produces reasonably accurate prints with the generic profiles it suggests to me that it is the software?
Hi Chris...
Seems awfully coincidental, same paper company which sends you their profiles.
Question, When you request a printer profile from that company, do they ask for the printer brand and model, and allow a download which is different depending on whether you selected Glossy ot Luster or matte type paper?
Rule of thumb.
Qimage, when you select let Printer Manage color, automatically places a fairly broad RGB color print profile in the Printer Profile Job Property box
This usually couples very nicely with the driver set to ICM in most cases.
If the colors and saturation are close to your profiled monitor and you really cannot find fault with the print, only that you are striving for the best possible, then we have to place suspicion on the supplied printer profiles.
The prints are good when using a generic printer profile, and not good when using the supplied profiles.
Many things could be at the root of the problem, such as their spectrometer out of calibration, as well as them creating profiles from outdated drivers for printers.... or This printer uses the new K3 inks whereas the 1800 used regular pigment...
I really don't know, but the evidence seems to point to the printer profiles.
If you could purchase a small pack of Epson paper from Staples or wherever, and pop in the appropriate Epson printer profile that came with the printer, or can be downloaded for the printer, set the driver to No Color Adjustment (Color OFF), then we will know for sure.
With the Epson profile in Qimage and the driver set properly, and you get a great print, you have the answer.
Fred