Pro9500 Media Type/ink Load Relationship

[Twald]

First off, I am (planning on) printing with Precision Colors ink. I have been experimenting with various media type/profile combinations for printing on cheap matte photo paper. The paper I am using is Canon Matte Photo Paper and Epson Doubleweight Matte.

The result I get with the Matte Photo Paper profile and the Matte Photo Paper media type are unacceptable. I cannot get any dark colors. Using the Soft Proofing feature in Lightroom 4 shows a bad image, and that is how it prints. Keeping the Matte Photo Paper profile and changing the media type to Fine Art Premium Matte drastically improves the print results. Using the Photo Rag media type also gives me better results than the plain Matte Photo Paper media type.

My understanding is that the media type is what determines the paper's ink load. I need to profile the papers I plan to use with the PC ink, but before I do that, which media type should I use for printing the patches? Can anyone provide me with a guide as to what the ink loads of the various media types are? With even a "Most, Less, Least, etc." designation, I could create several profiles for each paper and decide at the time of printing whether to prioritize flexibility or print quality by choosing the appropriate media type and profile.

The Fine Art type seems an obvious media type choice but it restricts me to the 35mm margins and letter or A3 paper sizes. The Photo Rag media type gives better results than the Matte Photo Paper type but it still imposes a small margin. I would like to print borderless or at least with a more reasonable border than 35mm. I would also like to print 4x6 photos.

I am printing from Lightroom 4 and the soft proofing feature provides me with an impressively close likeness to the final look of the print, particularly in terms of how badly the shadows will be out of gamut. One oddity that I have observed is that using the Fine Art Premium Matte media type together with the Matte Photo Paper profile will give me a print that looks much like the Fine Art Premium Matte. This leads me to believe that the media type (i.e. ink load) is a greater factor in image quality than the profile itself.

Another question: is it reasonable to expect a wider gamut out of a custom profile made with the Matte Photo Paper media type than the OEM Matte Photo Paper has? My thinking is that perhaps Canon designed that profile with ink economy as a priority.

 

[The Hat]

The experts only profile to the paper there’re going to use to print their image on and they
also have to profile to every individual paper they use from then on to get the best results,
I never use profiles for any of my printing, I just wing it.

I set the printer to use which ever paper I get the best prints from and don’t necessarily
print in high quality mode either, in other words your set the printer to use your settings
and not the other way around, and that way you can also easily get round the 35 mm margins.

When I print on cotton canvas for instance, I set the printer to use standard quality setting
and the media type to plain paper which then works out better than if I'd used
the printers own canvas media settings with it's 35 mm margins !

Borderless printing is a different matter entirely, you MUST only use the printer size setting
and no others, no custom sizes are allowed and you must also set it for photo paper on high quality.

BUT again here’s where you can use which ever paper and ink setting you wish
but just don’t tell the printer that !

 

[Twald]

I have actually never tried the Plain Paper media setting... I guess I should do that.

 

[rodbam]

Canons Matte Photo paper is a cheap type of paper compared to their fine art matte papers. I have profiled all my papers for Image Specialist inks on my Pro9500 & the Matte Photo paper gives me just average prints. I bought a box of Canon Fine Art Natural & it prints up beautifully, yes the large enforced borders is a restriction but if I don't want the borders I just use the Matte Photo media type in the preferences which then allows me to print on the fine art paper with no borders & the prints look just as good to me as printing on the fine art setting.

 

[Twald]

Canons Matte Photo paper is a cheap type of paper compared to their fine art matte papers. I have profiled all my papers for Image Specialist inks on my Pro9500 & the Matte Photo paper gives me just average prints. I bought a box of Canon Fine Art Natural & it prints up beautifully, yes the large enforced borders is a restriction but if I don't want the borders I just use the Matte Photo media type in the preferences which then allows me to print on the fine art paper with no borders & the prints look just as good to me as printing on the fine art setting.

So how does the your custom Canon Matte Photo Paper profile compare to the OEM one? Would you mind sharing your profiles?

 

[rodbam]

There's not a great deal of difference between OEM profiles & the ones I've made because the Image Specialist inks are very close to Canon colours.
Precision Colors who sell the IS inks have all the profiles for IS inks & papers on their web site so have a look there to see what they have.