Matching OEM inks vs. not doing so on Kirkland professional Glossy

[mikling]

The Kirkland Professional Glossy paper has shown itself to be one of the most popular papers because of its price performance.

I am in a quandary because when putting together an inkset for the Pro-100. I had been using it most of the time for cost reasons. What I am finding is that the Pro-100 output with OEM ink with this paper is suboptimal.

I have two choices. I have a combination inkset that outputs very close to a profiled output but veers away from matching the OEM colors. I also have an inkset that matches the OEM output more closely but the output for users with no experience with color management will not be that good with this paper. But sooooo many folks use this paper which is a bargain from Costco.

I have reached that junction of trying to decide what is better.

One side of my brain tell me that any user who wants color managed output is going to use an ICC profile anyways so the difference does not matter. The benefit is that the newbies get near profiled output with any simple and free photoedit programs.

The other side, says....but it's not as close to OEM as possible

Hmmm....

 

[crenedecotret]

You're probably right about wanting to get as good an output as possible without profile.

BUT how does this inkset do with other papers, like Canon, HP or Epson? A lot of people will also buy whatever is on sale buy one get one free at staples. That's usually how I get my hands on matte paper. If the inkset you've come up with works good on Kirkland but doesn't look good on anything else, it might not be a good idea.

After profiling is this inkset, what does the result look like compared to a profile done with the OEM inkset? Is it limiting the output in any way?

 

[mikling]

The output is near identical and the variance will as you know depend on the challenge the image presents. If an easy image is used and within gamut, there are no differences. Throw some out of gamut areas and the rendering intent algorithm will distort and whether this distortion is seen will depend on the severity of out of gamut.