OCP - PIGMENT INK for Epson R2400

[manitoidman]

OCP inks for Epson perform as well or better in many cases than the OEM ink. I have tested almost every ink from OCP personally.
I am currently testing the OCP Epson inks and have found the density and saturation are easily as good as OEM inks.

 

[jtoolman]

I am using OCP for my R1900s and R2000 R2400 and 3800. The problems seems to always be the lack of gloss in the Magenta inks. Though that is not a native problem with just OCP inks and does occur with other such as IS.

My friend and I tested the 1st version of their Vivid Magenta and Vivid Light Magenta inks ( K3 VM ) and though they worked very well on my R2880 the still suffer from gloss differential ( any color utilizing Magenta ) A print of a red flower will look as if the flower itself was printed with purely matte inks when done on glossy paper. So matte and art papers and possibly the less shiny satin papers will work with these OCP inks.

Joe

 

[WolfgangExler]

So matte and art papers and possibly the less shiny satin papers will work with these OCP inks.

I personally like the R1900 and R2000 printers with their gloss optimizer. But these printers are bad choices for printing black & white pictures as they only use one black ink (no LK, LLK). My prefered paper type is either pearl/satin or matte and also pearl/satin canavas, sometimes matte canvas.

So for me the vivid magenta issue on glossy paper is less important and I do not rely on it.

Wolfgang

 

[jtoolman]

Wolfgang, The R1900 and R2000 CAN do an admirable job printing B&W IF you create a custom profile. I have done so and then I optimized that ICC profile by creating an optimizing chart from an image containing several hundred shades of Black to White and grays with the Colormunki Photo.
Results are about as linearly neutral as you can get even on my 3800s of any other K3 printer.
It's really amazing how linear B&W can actually be on one of these single black printers.

 

[WolfgangExler]

Wolfgang, The R1900 and R2000 CAN do an admirable job printing B&W IF you create a custom profile. I have done so and then I optimized that ICC profile by creating an optimizing chart from an image containing several hundred shades of Black to White and grays with the Colormunki Photo.

Hmm, just a regular ICC profile?

In general I create ICC profile with an i1Pro and i1Profiler using custom testcharts with 988 color patches on 2 A4/US Letter pages. But I never did a special B&W profiling. Is there any public information how to optimize B&W printing with ICC profiles?

I seldom print B&W, never for myself, just for friend etc. In regular I set the printing app (Qimage or Photoshop/Elements) to "color management by printer" and set the printer driver to ABW mode. Is there a "better" way for B&W printing on R1900/R2000 printers?

Wolfgang

 

[jtoolman]

Wolfgang, this happened by chance.
I began to use OCP inks for the R1900 and R2000 ( had to do a special order which took months )
I profiled the inks to some of my papers. Results for color were pretty much excellent.
The X-Rite Colormunki has an option for modifying or optimizing an existing profile. To do so you load an image. I believe that what it is doing is using the actual image you are planning on ultimately printing to create a third "Optimizing" chart which is based on the actual color values of that image.
I have several tiffs of calibration charts. One of these only contains neutral patches. Several hundred of them. Loading that image file created a third Colormunki chart which is printed and after drying, scanned. The final profile can be saved under the same name or saved as a different separate profile.

So when I print B&W images using that particular profile I get almost perfect B&W prints. Obviously I will still print through my R2880 or PRO3800 for really important images but for everyday B&W printing, the R2000 produces images that only the most finicky person will not be satisfied with.

 

[WolfgangExler]

( had to do a special order which took months )

I assume this was the shipping to the US

The X-Rite Colormunki has an option for modifying or optimizing an existing profile.

I know this optimization. this is also available for i1Profiler. Seems to be a misunderstanding on my side, I had in mind that you did a special black and white optimization

Obviously I will still print through my R2880 or PRO3800 for really important images but for everyday B&W printing, the R2000 produces images that only the most finicky person will not be satisfied with.

I will try this sometime. As written I do not B&W for myself. If I have to print B&W, I use either R3000, Pro 4800 or HP B9180 as these printers have multiple black inks

Wolfgang

 

[jtoolman]

Wolfgang, here is a review on the Canon PRO-100 where our own resident Canon expert ( Mikling ) and developer of probably the only substitute ink system for the PRO-100, with his views on B&W printing with printers using multiple blacks. It seems that there is a lot more to it than having multiple blacks.

http://www.precisioncolors.com/Pro-100.html

I have a dedicated EPSON 1400 loaded with and ALL BLACK ink set from InkSupply. Simmilar to Jon Cone Piezography system.
It does produce simply amazing results. However, because the inks are NEUTRAL shades, you them get perfectly neutral prints. No toning is possible.
CONE sells specific ink sets in specific tones. Warm, Neutral and Cool.
I absolutely believe that one can achieve very good linearity by compositing color inks along with the blacks. That "Perfect" combining or mixing of colors in order to produce neutral or toned shades from the deepest blacks to the lightest grays can be achieved with is you have either a RIP or a properly optimized ICC filter. As I said, I have done that with the R2000 and even a regular 6 color dye printer.

My PRO 3800 with a full OCP K3 ink set can produce nearly neutral prints ( a smidgen on the warm ) on say, Red River Polar Matt ( 90 Pound ) paper. And that is using the Red River's own ICC profile which was made for OEM K3 inks.
I am 100% that if I produce a profile for the RR Polar Matte and OCP K3 inks I will be able to eliminate the slight warmness obtained with their profile.

Once you are able to achieve a neutral print printing with ALL colors ( No ABW ) then you can send a slightly toned Duotone Grayscale image
( In Photoshop ) to the printer and be assured that the tone you added will be faithfully reproduced.
Portraits and Spring, Summer, Fall landscapes get a tiny bit of warmth. Ocean scenes get a tiny bit of coolness added. And so on.

It's very nice to be able to predict how an image will print.