>>>Tippy the turtel>>>Colour setting question + Epson 1290

[nick/slickrenderer@adobeforums.com]

Note- my printer is Epson 1290

PART A-

The colour setting on all my Adobe softwares is set on "Tippy the turtle"...I mean "Euro pre-press defaults" :-)

Anyway I did some art work for offset print which had a spot colour
144C (orange)
No problems with the finished work.

Now I had to print some stuff internally to match the offsett printed material.

1st I used the original file that I had sent to the printer for offset printing. The 144C came out muddy orange and horrible on my Epson.
Then I printed almost all orange swatches from the process and coated swatches palette to get something similar but I could not. All the other oranges looked muddy as well.

Anyway while experimenting I changed the colour settings from "Euro prepress default" to "Emulate Adobe Illustrator 6" and BANG! the orange was not only close to the offset printed material but it was 99% bang on...which was more than I was looking for.

I have what I needed but my only problem is I don't fully understand what all that meant. Why did "Euro pre press default" not let me print 144C or ANY!!!other orange close to what I wanted but "Emulate AI 6" could print the original files 144C bang on target???
Please enlighten me as I am confused like "Tippy the Turtle" :-O

[Jacob_Bugge@adobeforums.com]

Nick,

Instead of AI6 emulation you can just choose Color Management Off: that is what the AI6 emulation does (or should I say does not?).

I believe some printers, including at least some of the Epson printers, prefer to know which colour you want, plain and simple, rather than being bullied by colour management; they seem to feel they know what they are doing, better than any outsiders.

And if they can print like the big ones without being told to, why not let them?

Maybe these remarks will stir up something.

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

Nick,

Remember that non-PostScript printer drivers CANNOT pass CMYK data - it HAS
to be converted on-the-fly to RGB. The printer firmware then converts it
back to CcMmYk. This double conversion is almost guaranteed to screw
colours.

Additionally, the Epson has a much larger colour gamut than does Euro
prepress default.

To print to a non-PostScript printer you should send RGB data, and to change
that orange (if necessary) once you have converted the document mode to RGB

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Nick,

The colour setting on all my Adobe softwares is set on... "Euro pre-press
defaults"




....doesn't give us the details of your color settings. And you haven't told us which version of Illustrator you are using.

But judging from your statement "I did some art work for offset print..." and your Euro pre-press setting, I'm going to assume your document is in CMYK mode. And based on that assumption, I can offer a basic observation or two.

To even hope to get accurate color output when you are working in CMYK -- whether or not you use spot colors -- your printer must be a Postscript device. Third party software RIPs, such as iProof's PowerRIP <http://www.iproofsystems.com> or the now defunct Adobe PressReady, exist to enable CMYK Postscript output using popular desktop ink jet printers.

Without such software, using your Epson's native driver, you are, in effect, printing to an RGB device... the CMYK-based inks of your printer notwithstanding. The output profiles associated with the native driver are all RGB, and since there is no controlled CMYK-to-RGB space conversion being performed, your output colors will be wildly unpredictable. If you happen to hit it or get close for a particular color or document by some combination of settings, such as Emulate Adobe Illustrator 6, that's just a lucky coincidence.

Short of dropping the bucks for a software RIP -- and assuming you are working with IL version 9 or later (I think 9 was the first version to provide RGB document mode) -- I suppose you could get somewhat close by converting your document to RGB mode, selecting a reasonable RGB workspace (e.g., Adobe RGB 1998). Any linked or embedded images would also have to be converted to RGB in Photoshop. You can then use a color-managed RGB workflow to print with your Epson's native driver. Just be aware that the difference in color gamuts will likely result in output that is not truly representative of press conditions.

=-= Harron =-=

{Bumped by the Master.}