Pro-100 Ink Usage And Profile

[mikling]

I am currently awaiting a shipment of fresh current paper from Red River.

 

[wcandrews@sccoast.net]

With all my new Profiles from this table http://www.precisioncolors.com/PC42ICC.html , all the Canon papers look essentially the same colorwise. This is what profiles is supposed to accomplish and it does. The only intrinsic difference is the tonality of the highlight (paper white bias) and its effect on the tonality on B&W. There are very small detail performance differences in the dark shadows, but you need to go hunting to find them. I suspect the mixture of the ink plays a large part. If you need consistent output, then theoretically until all the inks become pure, each refill will require a new profile especially if you're picky about colors. To come to a consistent point, you need to flush to attain consistency.

I agree completely that the inaccuracies are likely caused by the mixture of OEM and PC ink. After all, we should not expect an exact match between OEM and PC ink. It is remarkable that the profiles for PC produces such great color with full OEM ink and a mixture of the two inks.

My comments are not to condemn PC ink and its profiles in any way. It's just to post two questions:

1. Is it worth the effort to make new profiles for OEM ink and any mixtures with PC ink? If yes, that will mean many new profiles as the mixture of PC and OEM ink changes.

2. The second option is to purge the carts now and go to full PC ink and then judge the PC profiles. This takes some work and time.

Since I don't have any critical printing to do at the moment, I'll just ride with option 2 for the time being.

I will add that observers of the prints with the current state of mixture of OEM ink and PC ink with PC profiles have been really impressed with the results. Only us photo freaks make critical judgments about these results.

Good Luck!
Wil