Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

The PP help files list Color Controls with Gamma 1.8 as the first choice and NCA as the second choice for Epson printers in general.  However, Mike at one point wrote to say that this was for "older" Epsons and that the R1800 should profile ok in NCA mode with the normal target, not the bright one.  When I try this, I get a fairly dark target and usable ranges of: 38-255, 51-255, 51-255.  With Color Controls, I get 0-255, 0-255, 0-255.

I see that a number of folks here also use PP with an R1800.  Can you please tell me what settings you're using when creating profiles?  If Color Controls, do you use Gamma 1.8 or 2.2?

I've been scanning the targets with an Epson 3170 and its own software driver, but I wanted to try Vuescan (I have the full version).  Are the Vuescan settings listed in the Prism help still appropriate for the current versions of Vuescan?

Thanks.

Are you sure that is correct? NCA is always the first choice for colour managed printing and the making of a profile.
Using Colour Control (gamma 1.8 would be the correct choice) means that the driver will still "mess" with the colours in a way that could be inconsistent.
You do not say what type of papers you are profiling; mat papers do tend to give a poor shadow response compared to gloss. I have used PP for mat papers, with NCA and the normal target and found that to be true. This was with an R800. However, satisfactory prints were produced.
I use VueScan too, I don't think the instructions have changed, see attached for my settings. You can ignore the 4 passes setting, not all scanners can do that.
Terry.

Thanks for the information, Terry.  The PP help file I'm refering to is: http://www.ddisoftware.com/prism/help/driver.htm where Mike says:

In an email from about two years ago, he said:

For the most part, I was profiling glossy papers, albeit with third party inks.  So you use NCA with the regular target for glossy papers with good results on the R800?  Do you get usable ranges closer to 0-255 or 50-255?  

Perhaps the problem is due to the Epson scanning software.  I'll try again using Vuescan and I'll check if I can do multi-sampling.  Could you post the settings of the Color tab as well?  Thanks!

Gunars

Yes and yes to 0-255  :)
I've just looked back at some PP results for  the R800, an old HP and an Epson all-in-one. The latter 2 were for a friend and they gave good results for him too.
I have to say, I am now using "professionally" produced profiles for the Ilford Smooth papers I use but use PP profiles for some the odd mat papers I have.
Also, I have just renewed my subscription for PP updates, I still find it a useful program  ;)

Vuescan is very good, especially for Canon scanners that have a poor scanning software for profiling.
The settings on the Color tab are not relevant because you are using the RAW file from the scan that has no adjustments by Vuescan whatsoever. Just make sure the Input and Output  specify "48 bit RGB" and "Raw File" respectively.
I'm not sure how familiar you are with VueScan but make sure your scanner is on before opening VS and once set for profile scanning, save the Options from the File menu for easy set-up next time.

Terry.

Thanks for the additional information.  I've also been using "professional" profiles for my main paper/ink combinations since they're made using a spectrophotometer rather than my flatbed scanner.  I use PP for lesser used papers and it's perfectly fine for that.

I've used Vuescan occasionally for scanning images, but not for profiles.  I'll give it a try to see if I can squeeze a bit more out of the NCA targets.