The
more observant amongst you will be noticing some slight (but extremely
important) changes in the "Color Management"
section of the window. Notice that we now have the option of
setting "Print Gamma" when the driver is set to
"Automatic" mode. Basically the new driver and
associated ICC profile default to gamma 1.8. This presents Mac
users with no real problems. In fact doing a Profile-to-Profile
conversion on a gamma 1.8 image using the new "default"
ICC profiles show NO change in image density on screen.
There are of course colour and saturation changes as the image is
brought into the new printers optimal colour space.
Interestingly,
the "Help file" suggests that we set the gamma to
1.5 in "Automatic" mode if we require the same
"contrast" as was obtained when using previous
models. Alternatively, it should be set to gamma 1.8 for higher
contrast, and gamma 2.2 when printing images that require matching
with other sRGB devices (read PC monitor).
The
new gamma feature is only available in "Automatic"
mode, but the results using "PhotoEnhance4",
"sRGB" and "ICM" modes suggest
that Epson are presupposing a gamma of 2.2 anyway. Again, the Help
file would appear to confirm this when it suggests these modes are
optimised for images created on devices such as scanners, and
cameras calibrated for "sRGB" (i.e. 2.2, scanners and
digital cameras).
The
adjustment sliders basically operate as they always did, but with
the introduction of the gamma control I foresee little need for
Photoshop users to start tweaking the "Brightness"
slider. The new "default" or "canned"
ICC profile appears to be very good and I think many will find it
perfectly adequate for their needs, the linearity and smoothness
of greyscale seems to have been improved, although not to the extent
that the Epson 1270 could be considered suitable for serious B&W
printing.
In truth most of the above is all pretty much
academic for Photoshop users. I have found that Optimum
prints are obtained by simply selecting "ICM" or
"Automatic" (with driver gamma set to default
gamma of 1.8) in the driver and setting the Photoshop print dialog
as follows. Based on images created in both Adobe RGB (1998) and
ColorMatch I found using these settings resulted the final prints
matching the screen image pretty well.
Photoshop
5.5 Print Dialog Settings
Using
Photoshop 5.02 may be more problematic in that the "Printer
Color Management (PCM)" feature is known to be broken.
Thankfully we can simply select the Epson default profile in the
"Space" popup window and "Uncheck"
PCM feature as shown below. The results using comparable printer
settings and either method of configuring Photoshop Print dialog
are virtually identical.
Photoshop
5.02 Print Dialog Settings
The following table
summarises the modes that I tried and found operated successfully.
Hopefully it will allow you to make the first stab at getting good
prints. Also note that I found choosing the gamma of 2.2 in the
driver settings produced a print that was darker than I would have
expected, hence my choice of sticking with the default gamma of
1.8. By-the-way it doesn't much matter which colour space you
use in Photoshop, so long as you set the driver and Photoshop up
as suggested below you should get very good results.
| Photoshop
5.02
(Print dialog)
|
Print
Driver
|
Photoshop
5.5
(Print dialog)
|
Print
Driver
|
|
Adobe RGB or
ColorMatch
Space = Epson
ICM profile
PCM =
"Unchecked" |
Automatic (gamma
1.8), or
ICM mode
|
Adobe RGB or ColorMatch
Space = RGB
PCM =
"Checked"
|
Automatic
(gamma 1.8), or
ICM mode
|
Photoshop
and Driver Settings Summary
I have already put
through 18 A4 prints (excluding target prints and test images) and
reckon the quality I'm getting is exceeds the Stylus 1200 by a
fair margin (before you ask - some ink remains in cartridge, but
not much). The the range of printable tones has been extended,
with both shadows and highlights containing more information and
less noise than my Stylus 1200. The highlights are particularly
good, as are skin tones. I printed images in both ColorMatch and
Adobe RGB (1998) colour spaces and found that even solid coloured
patches of cyan, magenta and yellow printed with plenty of
saturation. For ColorMatch I used Andrew Rodney's RGB test print
and for Adobe RGB (1998) the now famous PhotoDisc Test Image
(see Preview image on Page 1).
Apparently the
drivers found on some early CD's for the PC version of the 870 and 1270
are faulty. The results tend to be light and desaturated because
the colour management system is being called incorrectly or not at
all. You should check the version number of the driver in the
properties dialog. The most recent, and known to work versions are
V5.01 for Windows 2000 and V5.02 for Windows 98. In case you are confused by the references you find at the Epson
web site (me too) 5.0b is actually 5.01 in the driver when
you install it, and 5.0c is 5.02 when it's installed. Just to
confuse matters further 5.0a is the same as 5.00.
The
previous misnomer of "No Color Adjustment" being
found under "Color Controls" has now been fixed,
it's out there plain for all to see, and does EXACTLY as
the name describes, nothing!! No doubt this will be the mode of
choice for when we get sufficient quantities of the new Premium
Glossy Photo Paper and begin creating "Custom"
ICC profiles. Although
I think it fair to warn you that creating a satisfactory (scanner
derived) "Custom" profile is a
difficult, but not impossible task. The new Premium Glossy paper
has a very high gloss, much like you would expect from a glossy
print from the "Photo Lab", and this gloss along with
a blue bias seems
to throw the scanner way of the mark. It has been suggested that
optical brighteners may be at work, but until more folk try and
profile the new paper/ink combination who can tell.
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