color management - r1900 - want confirmation

[dtschorn]

After trudging through numerous websites as well as some books, I feel like I have finally managed to wrap my head around the settings for color management in Adobe Photoshop CS2. I was hoping that I could post my settings here and that somebody might be kind enough to tell me whether I've set everything up correctly before I go off printing, it would be incredibly helpful.

My monitor has been calibrated using a Spyder 3 pro system as well.

Here are my settings under color settings:


Now, when I'm 'soft proofing', under View -> Proof Setup -> Custom, I believe I'm supposed to be selecting the paper/printer that I will be printing to, then selecting the Rendering Intent based on what would be most suitable for the image:


This is then what the document shows me at the top in terms of profiling information:


I would then (theoretically) go through my adjustments to the image and print through Print with Preview. Here are my settings:


Then, finally, I would have my printer setup like this:


and:


I realize this is a tedious 'guess and check' way to ask a question, but I was hoping to get confirmation before blowing through some ink and A3 paper... hopefully I've outlined it well enough to get some feedback.

As a side question, I was wondering when I would ever want to use the profile created for my monitor for printing. The Spyder 3 created a monitor profile which I can select under the 'Device to Simulate' box in the View -> Proof Setup -> Custom... menu. Will I ever use this profile when I want to print? I find this possibly the most confusing part...

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Costas L]

.... Now, when I'm 'soft proofing', under View -> Proof Setup -> Custom, I believe I'm supposed to be selecting the paper/printer that I will be printing to, then selecting the Rendering Intent based on what would be most suitable for the image:

It helps to save (press the save button) the settings under a descriptive name like "Water colour RadWhite RC" - it will then appear in the drop down menu for you to select.

....As a side question, I was wondering when I would ever want to use the profile created for my monitor for printing. The Spyder 3 created a monitor profile which I can select under the 'Device to Simulate' box in the View -> Proof Setup -> Custom... menu. Will I ever use this profile when I want to print? I find this possibly the most confusing part...

All your settings look correct to me, a sound bit of research and your screen shots are a good example for anyone else looking for that information

You don't need to select the monitor profile you created, it is used behind the scenes as it were, by CS2 when displaying the image to your screen.

[bez]

I’m not familiar with the 1900 but is Watercolor the correct setting - not Best?
Do you want to print borderless?
Yes, don’t select Monitor as your print profile; this should be paper type, and with Epson papers should match in both CS2 & Epson panel. If printing on a third-party paper the two may not match.
The Photoshop print preview is of limited use, and the final Epson one is even worse - only useful for size & margins etc.
If you think the on-screen profiled image is close, unless you’re very good you have to make a print to refine it further.

[Kevgermany]

I’m not familiar with the 1900 but is Watercolor the correct setting - not Best?

I think we have to assume that this setting is recommended for the paper that's going to be used. However for other papers.... Good to bring it up.

The Photoshop print preview is of limited use, and the final Epson one is even worse - only useful for size & margins etc.

The Epson preview gives a lovely magenta looking image with these settings (and it should). Fully agree with Bez, but a further check is that if the preview image isn't strongly magenta, something's wrong - probably the ICM/OFF is set wrongly.

[bez]

The Epson preview gives a lovely magenta looking image with these settings (and it should). Fully agree with Bez, but a further check is that if the preview image isn't strongly magenta, something's wrong - probably the ICM/OFF is set wrongly.

Yes, at least it's consistently wrong, so it is of some use once you get used to it
If Watercolor is correct (which seems logical) I wonder about Photo RPM, which is normally the highest DPI (5760?) and usually not of benefit with matt papers, not that it would make much difference to the print – just take longer and use a bit more ink..
Interesting to see some info is missing from CS2, such as printing PPI.

[Costas L]

.... If Watercolor is correct (which seems logical) I wonder about Photo RPM, which is normally the highest DPI ... .

The print driver only lets you select Photo RPM for the appropriate papers - so I would assume the watercolour is some sort of semi-gloss rather than matte. Photo RPM should give improved tonal graduations, with the right images of course.

CS2 should not be giving a magenta preview with those settings - not on my screen anyway.

[dtschorn]

Thank you all for the input. I ended up printing 2 sheets of 9 postcard-sized photos. The colors were very close in all of them, with the most saturated photos being only slightly more saturated than what I saw on the monitor. I will also say that I highly recommend the R1900, setup was a breeze, and the Epson paper profiles seems to be pretty bang on.

I think these postcard sized photos will also be a good thing just to have sitting around for people to take with them, no waste!

[Kevgermany]

CS2 should not be giving a magenta preview with those settings - not on my screen anyway.

Not Photoshop, but the printer driver preview.

[Costas L]

That explains it then kev

[Kevgermany]

Thank you all for the input. I ended up printing 2 sheets of 9 postcard-sized photos. The colors were very close in all of them, with the most saturated photos being only slightly more saturated than what I saw on the monitor. I will also say that I highly recommend the R1900, setup was a breeze, and the Epson paper profiles seems to be pretty bang on.

I think these postcard sized photos will also be a good thing just to have sitting around for people to take with them, no waste!

Sounds rather good. Now for a big one!

[dtschorn]

After finally deciding on which print I wanted to give the big test two, I'm ultimately very impressed with the results. I wasn't initially too happy with the look of the watercolor paper, but it has definitely grown on me and it looks perfect behind glass.

I do have one last question however. It seems as though Photo RPM is the highest quality setting (as mentioned earlier in the thread) and will lead to ink consumption beyond what I'd like. The problem is that there is no way to change this setting in the print dialog, it is the only option available for the watercolor paper. Does anybody know of a way to change this setting in order to conserve some ink? Manually fiddling with the profile or something?

[bez]

RPM will only use slightly more ink than the next setting down - about 5% or less.
You could try manually reducing the ink if that’s possible on the 1900, but this may change the image unacceptably.
Alternatively try another similar matt profile; one that does allow you to select Best (2880) or even Photo (1440)

[dtschorn]

Thanks for the reply bez. Since time isn't really a consideration, and the ink consumption difference doesn't seem to be that huge at 5%, I'll probably just stick with the settings for the paper as I've been happy with the results.

[bez]

5% is an educated guess, based on accurate figures for the 3800 - if it was much more than 5% the print would become noticeably darker as you increased the dpi, which would clearly be unacceptable.

[Costas L]

Thanks for the reply bez. Since time isn't really a consideration, and the ink consumption difference doesn't seem to be that huge at 5%, I'll probably just stick with the settings for the paper as I've been happy with the results.

Photo RPM lays down the smallest ink dots providing the full printer resolution of 5760 ink dots per inch so probably equal to 720dpi image resolution. "Best" is is probably going to be 360dpi image resolution and uses a larger dot size. The difference will only be visible on images with fine tonal graduations or very fine detail, however the only real downside of the higher resolution is the longer print times so why avoid using your printer at its best settings. As bez says, little if any extra ink is used otherwise the prints will be too dark