PC Ink Intensity -15

[apetitphoto]

But what I don''t understand is that most answers seem to totally disapprove the value of nozzle checks... I have not thought about this yet... but anyway it bypasses all color settings...!?

A nozzle check does just that: I tells you if ink is flowing through a nozzle. It has nothing to do with color balance. It may indicate that colors are off because a certain set of nozzles are misfiring but it does not tell anything about whether the proper nozzles are firing to produce a certain color. Think of it as a check for a heartbeat: Having one may indicate that you're alive, but doesn't say that your cholesterol level is too high...

 

[apetitphoto]

Someone mentioned experimenting with letting the printer manage the color. I thought this would a simple thing, but I have no clue how to enable this. Is it setting Color/Intensity to Auto? Is it Color Correction to Driver Matching? Is it Color Management->Managed by Printer? There are umpteen different combinations to test. In the immortal words of Jack Nicholson, "Do I marry her? Do I ice her? Which one of these?"

The latter. Managed by printer will take away a lot of options, as you are admitting that the driver and printer know best.

 

[martin0reg]

Okay it's meant for testing the nozzles - but when you do a nozzle check twice, with the same nozzles but different ink set, then it could indicate colors are off, or more precisely, ink density is slightly different. Because the nozzles won't change their quality that fast.
It's like comparing drops of ink from two ink sets on a test strip.

 

[apetitphoto]

Okay it's meant for testing the nozzles - but when you do a nozzle check twice, with the same nozzles but different ink set, then it could indicate colors are off, or more precisely, ink density is slightly different. Because the nozzles won't change their quality that fast.
It's like comparing drops of ink from two ink sets on a test strip.

Again, it is a check of nozzle function, not of color correctness.
If the ink affects nozzle performance perhaps it is not a good ink for the printer.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

as long as you just want to compare the visual appearance of 2 different inks keep all the other parameters the same - driver settings, profile if needed at all in this process , paper , test image and print with the inks you want to compare. Working through driver options should be a separate exercise. It may help as well to print some color patches which can be aligned against each other for direct comparison.

 

[The Hat]

The latter. Managed by printer will take away a lot of options, as you are admitting that the driver and printer know best.

Most certainly a very big yes, when you don’t have a clue as to the printer’s capability’s yourself, then allowing or letting the printer to do the hard work for you is the proper way to print first.

The biggest problem with printing with a Pro printer is the Pebkac in front of a calibrated monitor, using Lightroom or Qimage, THINKING that they can produce the best prints because they’ve got all the right facilities on hand and in place.

The answer to that is no, ten times no, if they learn what the printer can produce first and then work with it, they can go on to produce even better and amazing prints, but it takes time and patients...