Sihl/United Office/280g Glossy Paper

[Emulator]

I have been exploring PrintFab and its capability to set maximum ink volume levels when a profile is created for a given printer/paper/ink combination.

When experimenting with A4 Sihl 280g glossy on the Canon Pixma Pro9000II with IS dye inks, I printed an ink level assessment test strip in PrintFab and found ink pooling/bronzing (for want of a better word), on all levels above 125 i.e. 150 to 300.





The images (click to enlarge) were difficult to produce as it required slant light illumination very carefully adjusted to show the pooling.

Looking at the enlarged 300 image, I notice that the paper has a pattern of perforations across areas of its surface. This I think is due to the printer paper feed mechanism.

It would be interesting if a pigment printer was subjected to the same test.

I have edited the post to include two additional sections of the printed test strip to give a more complete picture of the process.

 

[PeterBJ]

Checking the Sihl website I noticed that the glossy 280 gsm paper is rated "Excellent" for a printer like the iP5200 using the Chroma Life inkset, but only "Good" for a printer like the Canon PIXMA Pro 9000 using the Lucia inkset (?). Both printers use the CLI-8 dye inks, so the inksets should be the same (?). Link here: http://www.sihl.ch/content/Products.aspx?Nid=34&Aid=661&ID=122&ArID=7&GrpID=18&CatID=45&FamID=191 , I also think the IS inkset is the same for the two printers with the exception of fewer inks for the iP5200.

Also note the difference in recommended settings: http://www.sihl.ch/download/product/e/Printer_Settings_Photo_UltimatePhotoPaper.pdf . For the Pro 9000 it is recommended to reduce the amount of ink laid down on the paper.

The Sihl links may not work, the link addresses seem to change, but then you can find them here: http://www.sihl.ch/content/default.aspx ->English->Home and Office->Photo Papers, under "Home and office media inkjet"->Quick dry photo paper 280, here is the printer compatibility list->glossy 0769 280 g/m, click the PDF icon for recommended printer settings.

 

[cls]

I tried printfab and i am not really getting warm with it... Guess my workflow is good as it is right now... Only interessting thing would be accuracte controll of each color channel or even nozzle to convert any 8 channel Epson (R1800 egg.) into a (C Y M K LK Orange LLK Gloss) priner

 

[Emulator]

Thanks for the links Peter, I have read through them. Strange that use with the 9000 is rated lower.

The "description and use" is interesting and confirms my feelings about drying time, the ColorMunki 10 minutes may be enough for profiling, but water will be coming off for some hours.

CLS, I know what you mean about PrintFab, it takes some adjusting to its way of doing things.

Using the "9000 PrintFab" printer, I created a profile for the Sihl paper in ColorMunki and optimised it using the Printer_Evaluation_Image.tif file. I then created a new profile for the "9000 PrintFab" printer with inks at "125", taking the colour content from the CM profile into the PrintFab profile.

The resulting printed image had the most pure greys I have seen and generally all the points to check about the image were good, but the black/white ramp and graduated strip were over dense at the black end. It will take another optimisation with a B&W test image to linearise this.

I have not yet attempted to examine all the other printing options available in PrintFab.

 

[crenedecotret]

Hi, I've been using Turboprint for a couple of years now. Printfab is essentially the windows version of Turboprint (TP is for Linux). I've found that some cheaper paper will accept less ink. I have no problem setting a higher ink limit with paper like Kirkland, and I have to go lower with cheapo paper like lower end Kodak.

When you create your profile, there is an option for paper type. Instead of "Glossy Paper", try "Other Paper". You may be able to select a higher ink limit this way.

Zedonet on their support forum recommend you try different paper settings until you are able to get 225% or more. Less that that would give you a usable but not great profile - just an indication that the ink/paper/printer combo is not a perfect match

 

[Emulator]

One of the difficulties with PrintFab is understanding how it operates behind the scenes. It is rather opaque and restrictive on things like using copy and paste or skipping through the screens without filling in all the entries.

The paper settings are understandable, but what do the %age ink levels refer to, 100 to 300%, %age of what?

The test strip is a practical test and does show what an individual paper will take, irrespective of which paper settings you use.

I also noticed that where as ColorMunki optimisation charts made through the Pixma9000ll printer are noted as RGB, the ColorMunki charts through the Pixma9000ll(PrintFab) printer are noted as CMYK.