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Andrew Darlow is a photographer, author, consultant, and Editor of
The Imaging Buffet (www.imagingbuffet.com). For two years he served
as Editorial Director of Digital Imaging Techniques magazine
(www.imaginginfo.com), which reached 30,000 photographers, art
directors and other graphic arts professionals. For more tips like
these, subscribe to Andrew's free "Inkjet & Imaging Tips" e-
newsletter by subscribing at www.imagingbuffet.com. Darlow's new
book, 301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques: An Essential Printing Resource
for Photographers (Course Technology, PTR), is now shipping.
Updated August 1, 2006:
(from "Tips and Techniques for Making Gallery-Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers" Technical Seminar. Presented in Arles, France by Andrew Darlow, July 6, 2006)
Q: How much printer resolution do I need?
A: You don't always need very high resolution. Even 180 ppi can give you great prints, especially with larger sizes. However, it is best to be close to 300 ppi at the final print size.
Q: I can't decide whether to buy a large-format printer. Advice?
A: If you are not ready to buy a large inkjet printer, you can buy a smaller one and work with an outside company with a similar printer and ink to print your larger work. That way you can make excellent proofs on the same paper, which is the most time consuming and difficult part.
Q: How can I tell which is the printing side on fine-art inkjet papers?
A: Most fine art matte papers feel a little like sandpaper on the print side when you scratch them with your thumbnail. The back is usually very smooth.
Q: What are the names of some of the new fiber-based papers and where can I find them?
A: I have only tested a few:
PremierArt™ Platinum Rag 285gsm and 335gsm
www.premierimagingproducts.com
Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Satin
www.hahnemuehle.com
Crane's Silver Rag
www.crane.com
Innova Photo Fiba-Print 280 & FibaPrint Gloss 300gsm (F-type gloss)
www.innovaart.com
Luster Rag (now called Platimum Rag) has a heavier base and is smoother than Photo Rag Satin, which has a visible paper texture like that found on many cotton inkjet papers. Crane's Silver Rag has a more glossy surface.
Updated April 17, 2005:
Q: How do I see my printer's progress bar in OSX?
A: For those of us old enough to remember the Mac OS9 driver, after clicking on the "Print" button in just about any application a status monitor application would launch, and we could easily see our job's progress in the form of a progress bar. In OSX, that function is not as easy to find, but it is there if you look for it.
You might expect that if you have the Printer List open, you could just double click on your printer's name, but that doesn't usually work.
Instead, after sending a print job to your printer, and after the document spools into memory, an icon of a printer should appear on the right side of your Dock (if your Dock is at the top or bottom of your screen). If you click on it, you'll see your progress bar. You can then easily stop printing, delete items in the queue and see multiple jobs lining up in the bottom of the box as you print multiple jobs.
There are other ways to get this progress bar to show up, and one way is to open the Printer Setup Utility (in the Utilities folder, which is in the OSX Applications folder; I recommend putting an alias of it in your dock by dragging the icon into your Dock). After highlighting one of the printers, select "Create Desktop Printer." I usually save it to the desktop and when double clicked, the status bar will appear. That desktop icon can even be dragged into the OSX sidebar area to the left of the main finder window. It will then serve as an alias, though the original item will stay on the desktop.
Q: How can I quickly insert paper in the proper direction in the Epson 4000's tray for testing or double-sided printing?
A: I recently did some consulting with a client who owns an Epson 4000, and I soon realized the there is an easy way to place paper into the paper tray when doing print testing, or when you want to print on both sides of a sheet. As I've mentioned in the past, I use a standard image to do print testing (click here to download the file I use), and I usually print the same image four times on a letter-size sheet. After each print, I reinsert the paper and move the image in Photoshop's File>Print-with-Preview dialog box. The Epson 4000 has a great paper tray, but it can be confusing to place the paper correctly, so here's a fast way to get it right every time:
1. Stand in front of the printer holding the page in front of you. Let's assume we want the test image to print in the top left of the page, and there is already an image in the top right. Make sure that the image is placed properly in Photoshop's File>Print-with-Preview screen. It will help to make a stick figure of a person on the top right of a sheet of paper to follow along.
2. Turn the print 180 degrees so that it is upside down. The stick figure will be upside down on the bottom left of your paper.
3. Place the sheet in the paper tray print side down. This just takes a flip of the wrist and the stick figure will be on the bottom, closer to the back of the tray.
Q: How do I do a nozzle check without wasting so much ink with the Epson 7600/9600 printers?
A: If you own one of the Epson 7600/9600 printers, you might have noticed that if the inks are getting low (one or more lights blinking), and you do a nozzle check through the driver software, it might prompt you to replace the ink. However, I've found that there is usually still a good deal of ink in the cartridge, and the way to keep printing is as follows: The nozzle check should be done through your printer's LCD panel. Just pull out your printer manual and use the controls on the printer panel to run a nozzle check and cleaning (if necessary). Paper needs to be loaded and letter-sized sheets work fine. This procedure will force the inks to run down until there is very little left. This advice is also applicable to other Epson printers.
If this happens on the Epson 2200, turn off the printer. Then hold down the button to the left of the power button as you turn on the printer. This will print a nozzle check even though the printer's software won't let you. To clean the heads, hold down the ink cleaning button on the printer for a few seconds. To do another cleaning, follow the above procedure.
Q: How do I get good B&W from the Epson 2200 printer?
A: This answer works with Windows drivers and OS9 (not OSX): On a friend's PC using XP, I started with a neutral RGB file (convert to sRGB or have no profile embedded), and I used no Epson or custom profiles (choose Postscript Color Management in PS7 at the bottom of the window in Print-with-Preview). Inside of the Epson driver, try using the Custom/Advanced/Photoenhance3 option, and in the dropdown box, select Monochrome. I'd also select the Enhanced Matte paper setting if you are using matte black with matte papers, and select 1440dpi with Hi Speed off and Super Microweave off. You might be pleasantly surprised!
A few other options include:
* Print with a good color profile, either from Epson, or custom made. This will use all inks, but the results can be surprisingly good, especially with high quality matte papers.
* Print with a RIP. Both (http://www.colorburstrip.com) and (http://www.colorbytesoftware.com) are both well known for their ability to print good B&W. The ColorBurst RIP comes free in a limited edition with some Epson 4000s, or it can be purchased as a stand-alone program.
* Another option is the Quadtone RIP by Roy Harrington (http:/www.harrington.com). It is Mac OSX and Windows compatible. The added advantage to this RIP is its cost--only $50.
Q: Which Ilford paper do I choose for pigment inks with the Epson 2200 or with the dyes on an Epson 1280?
A: For users of the Epson 2200/4000/7600/9600 printers (with the Epson Photo Black installed or active), Ilford Smooth Pearl and Smooth Gloss are the ones to use with pigment inks such as the 2200's seven-color UltraChrome inks, or the Epson pigments found in the 2000P or the (24") 7500 and (44") 10000.
Epson Colorlife Semi-gloss is the same or almost the same as the Ilford Galerie Classic Pearl. The advantage of the Colorlife or Ilford Classic papers with dye inks is that there is very little to no "cyan fade" or premature shift to orange when prints are left unexposed to the air. Not everyone has experienced this problem, but it is a documented issue. One of my favorite papers with the dye-based ink Epson printers is Epson's Heavyweight Matte.
Q: How do I use custom profiles to getter better prints from my local minilab?
A: My friend uses profiles for his local Walmart's Fuji Frontier printer supplied by www.drycreekphoto.com (available free; see left-hand side of their web page), and he gets better results than with just sRGB. I've seen the results, and they are quite good, but yellows go a bit murky green, which can be adjusted prior to output in Photoshop or other programs. Here's how you would prep the file for the Frontier/Noritsu minilab printer:
1. Load the specific profile into your Colorsync profiles folder. On a Mac 9.x it is in System Folder/Colorsync Profiles. On Mac OSX, it can be found here: Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles. On the PC (at least on XP), it is in Windows/System32/Spool/Drivers/Color. Alternatively, you can right click in XP and select "Install." On other Windows operating systems, try Windows\System\Color.
2. Make sure you are happy with what you see on your calibrated monitor and save your file. I would then clean up the yellows in Photoshop's Image/Adjustments/Selective color by choosing Yellows and take out some Cyan (and maybe add a touch of Magenta). Sometimes, a better approach is to use Image/Adjustments/Hue/Saturation and select Yellows, then add 10 points or so of saturation.
3. Next, select Image/Mode/Convert to Profile and select the DryCreek Photo custom profile for your neighborhood Frontier. Next, save your file with the letters "WM" added for Walmart or some other abbreviation and send it to them at 100% size and at least 200ppi (300ppi is better) with no embedded profile. The photo won't look any different on your screen, but the numbers will have been altered to look better on the Frontier printer. Note that most of these machines use Fuji Crystal Archive paper, a very stable C-print paper. I much prefer the Matte (actually Semigloss) option, though I'm unsure about its availability in all stores. Also, expect some cropping to occur, though I haven't experimented to determine if this can be adjusted in advance to minimize it.
Q: When I print near the edge of the paper (DS matte or Somerset Velvet Enhanced) the black ink bleeds on the right side. What can I do to stop this problem?
A: First, any time you print very close to the edge of the printer, there is a chance for overspray onto the rollers that feed the paper. Try using an old T-shirt and saturate it with Windex glass cleaner. Then, rub it back and forth across the space where the head travels. Also, spray a piece of plain paper with Windex and feed it through a few times.
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