Epson and the land of icc profiles

[Sparky]

OK I'm throwing a generic question out there to those who own or operate an Epson printer/proofer. How difficult, how long (does it take) and do I start to get my shops color calibrated? ??? ???

I have worked with profiles in the past, calibrated Scitex work stations (in the past) calibrated curves on a PlateStream platesetter, and now I run a 34DI press that is also connected to an Epson 7800 printer, fed by the Presstek RIP (I think it's called "ProRIP"), a proprietary RIP that is a ROOM system.

Now since I've just been hired to run the press (they're ignoring my 35 years of prepress background) all I keep hearing is the proofs will never match the press sheets! BULLS**T, I know better. I just don't have the experience of these specific machines to know what I'm doing but I do know it can be done, damn even the Presstek demo video says so.

So anyone been through this kind of initial setup and calibration routine? I'd love to hear your trials and tribulations on this.

TIA, Sparky

[Marktonk]

Sparky,

Here is a generic version and assumes your rip supports ICC profiles for proofing. First you want to make sure you are printing with standard density and be even across the sheet. Next, make sure you have the proper dot gain on the sheet, if not, adjust the curve. Same applies if going to CtP instead of DI. You will then need profiling sw. Ours is Prinect Profiling Toolbox but there are others available. The sw will include test targets such as ECI, IT8.3 or 8.4 or others. output the target to the DI and print with standard density. Using the profiling sw, you will read the target into with a Spectrophometer. This will be your printing characteristic curve. Next, make sure the Epson is calibrate and output the same chart. Read that into the profiling sw. The sw will compare the two and generate an ICC profile. Apply this to the sw that drives the proofer. The  profile will be used for color managing the Epson. If color needs to be tweaked, your profiling sw may allow an overall move or if possible, use a more sophisticated iteration.

Hope this helps

Regards,

Mark

[kermit]

OK I'm throwing a generic question out there to those who own or operate an Epson printer/proofer. How difficult, how long (does it take) and do I start to get my shops color calibrated? ??? ???

I used to run Epson 10600 from Rampage with ICC but I am NOT doing it anymore. First Rampage rip allows to control Epson from ICC profile as many rips but that's it. You can spend all this time to make a nice profile and it will match whatever you want to match but after a while your Epson will drift away. That's the real problem. You will have to waste your time and resources to do it again and again etc. To resolve this you must have a rip that ALLOWS you to KEEP the color profile and redo just the linearization. In this scenario you linearize you Epson first and then you make the color profile (ICC or proprietary device link) and you are done. Once the Epson is linearized you make a color profile. When the EPson drift away you just re-do linearization and you are done.

This is what I do now with gmg system as I was spending too much time trying to keep 4 inkjets on the same page.

There are many rips that will allows you to do that. But most "regular" rips that do ripping and trapping will not allow you to have a separate lin file. You most likely would have to buy color rip that supports this function. The cheapest is ColorBurst I believe. ColorBurst PRO supports any paper and the version that comes with PRO Epson bundle only supports Epson papers. You would install it on Mac Mini and would have to get spectrophotometer.

If you need more info contact me

Derek

[Marktonk]

To resolve this you must have a rip that ALLOWS you to KEEP the color profile and redo just the linearization. In this scenario you linearize you Epson first and then you make the color profile (ICC or proprietary device link) and you are done. Once the Epson is linearized you make a color profile. When the EPson drift away you just re-do linearization and you are done.

Derek makes a valid point and if your software does it, you take it for granted. You do want sw that will separate the lin from the profile. We do that for our printers. To make life even easier, the new HP Z series have built in spectrophotometer, with our Colorproof Pro sw, you can have it automatically linearize at any time. Derek has the same functionality with his GMG and the Z's.


Regards,

Mark

[mtnman]

Our Agfa ApogeeX system also allows us to linearize without creating a new profile. ApogeeX QMXs allows to both verify and calibrate our proofers. We run three Sherpa44ms, color match between the three very good.

mtnman
Vancouver, B.C., Canada

[Sparky]

Thanks for the input. Mark nice to see you (figuratively speaking) again. Since I've made the move from desktop to pressman I see a real need to implement some of my knowledge on these guys to make my job easier. This will get me a long way to getting them to realize it's not to difficult to do this. 

[Ear]

Hi Sparky. I have been dealing with this issue for years now in a couple different shops. The last place I worked, we had an Epson 7000 and Kodak color mgmt software, the rip was scitex PSM. I could create profiles, linerize, etc... I had to chase color weekly and it was a PITA! We were a tight color shop and would have the pressman print a target to standard density, I would then calibrate the proofer to the press sheet.

My current shop has a nice workflow but no calibration software. The best thing I've heard of is having someone come in, fingerprint the presses and create profiles for you. If the proofer drifts, you can print a target, mail it to the color mgmt specialist and for $100 he will create a new profile for you. This sounds like a lot of money at first but it's still less than buying your own software and trying to keep current on it. The other downside to doing it yourself is unless you buy a very high end package, it won't be nearly as accurate as you would like and the results are dicey.