C2PS_38_IP-EpsonAdvB&W.mov compared to Lr3_31_print2.mov

[kevk]

Thanks for producing these tutorial videos chaps, I'm really getting a lot out of the new C2PS tutorial and it has prompted me to look back at the LR3 tutorials to fill in some blanks I had forgotten about.

One area where the new tutorial differs from the LR3 tutorial is when using the Epson advanced black & white section of the printer driver. The LR3 tutorial "Lr3_31_print2.mov" talks about purposely doing double colour management by setting the LR Print Job colour management profile to Adobe RGB 1998, and in the Page Setup (printer driver dialog) selecting Advanced B&W, the reason given was that the Epson driver acts a bit like a RIP and expects the data to be sent to it in Adobe RGB 1998.

In the new C2PS_38_IP-EpsonAdvB&W.mov, the recommendation is to set the LR Print Job colour management to "Managed by Printer" and (as before) in the Page Setup (printer driver dialog) selecting Advanced B&W.

What is the reason for the changed recommendation? Has the Epson Advanced B&W "driver" changed a lot or something?

Kevin

[Chris Sanderson]

Above my pay grade - my guess is that it is two ways to get at the same thing - but Jeff is the Epson expert. I must leave the definitive answer to him.

[Schewe]

What is the reason for the changed recommendation? Has the Epson Advanced B&W "driver" changed a lot or something?

The Epson print drivers for Mac have changed...ABW Mode can only be accessed when you set the CM option to Managed by Printer. This doesn't apply to Windows. This is a side effect (unintended as far as I know) of Apple, the print drivers and applications being designed to avoid double color management. In general, the idea is good when working in color but I think it's a bad idea for the ABW Mode. However, it's unlikely this will be changed back so we have to live with it.

[JimGoshorn]

If you specify a profile, the Epson driver will disable the ABW mode. In order to enable ABW mode, you have to have the driver set to Managed By Printer. The Epson driver update made these changes.

Jim

[kevk]

Thanks for clearing that up for me Jeff (and Jim).

Kevin

[Alan Goldhammer]

Several weeks ago there was a thread on this and Eric Chan weighed in on the value of being able to profile the Epson ABW driver.  As Jeff noted, this technique is still available if you are running Windows (and I've updated to the newest 3880 driver and it still works on Win7 machines). 

[kevk]

Thanks Alan, I'd missed that thread!

Kevin

[mac_paolo]

I now print with "Managed by Printer" and set the ABW options accordingly.

For what is worth, I realized that Darker expects gamma 2.2, Dark 2.0 and Normal 1.8.
So, Normal setting with +2 or +3 setting for brightness (to further compensate lack of brightness from screen to print) is what I found to be more faithful.

What's your recipe?