Early photo-quality print samples with my new Epson Photo 700 are excellent. However, I have noticed that it can mark variations in skin-tome in a clumsy, blotch way - with clearly visible boundaires between each shade - so that some bodies can come out looking like those hilly-terrain relief maps! I know the Epson 700 is renowned for skin-tone quality, so what gives? By the way, the effect is somewhat improved using PhotoEnhance 2. I get these results shooting onto pho- or near-photo-quality paper, even at top-whack (1440ppi, etc.) The images are from a Nikon Coolpix 900, very respectable ppi. Slightly over-exposed/flash prints, I think, produce the most worrying results. Thanks for any help, Matthew.

-- Matthew Bullen (mbulle@chmc.org), October 30, 1998

Answers

Matthew,

I am a 700 EX owner that gets outstanding results with the printer, and need them because I am a graphic designer that uses the 700 EX in my work flow. The following suggestion might help. I dont go into too much detail here because the manual does a goood job of describing each of the suggestions I am making.

One of the first things I would do is get a high quality image from a source other than your digital camera and print it. Digital cameras at the consumer level can take nice pictures, but they dont have the latitude of film, so if the subject is not evenly and well lit the picture will start to blotch because the CCD doesnt register the difficult areas accurately. Printing (CMYK gamut), whether on professional presses or ink jet printers, will exacerabate any defects in the image you see on screen (RGB gamut).

If the high quality image prints out skanky, check to make sure your printers nozzles are not clogged.

Make sure you are printing (when imaging photos) using the Diffusion halftone setting, using microweave (or super microweave if printing at 1440 with glossy paper).

Make double sure the paper your printing on matches your settings in the print dialog box. This can make a huge difference. Epson has really tweaked their printer driver and the settings are very sensitive to the media being used.

Finally, if you are a Mac user bother to get your ColorSync2 system level color matching wired in. The results are superior. This is the set-up I use. The manual covers using ColorSync2 settings. Experiment with the various ColorSync options. I like the Colormetric Rendering Intent setting (found in the printer dialog box where you find PhotoEnhance2). If you are a Windows 95 user there appears to be a similar system called ICM, but I am not familiar with it.

To use ColorSync you will need:

 The ColorSync2 extension for the Mac (should be in the extensions folder)

 a ColorSync2 profile for your monitor (which your monitor manufacturer can provide if it didnt ship with it at the time of purchase.) Also make sure your screen is calibrated. Your imaging program (I use Photoshop) should provide some means of doing this.

 a ColorSync2 profile for your Epson printer (ships with printer)

Using ColorSync I get proof quality results nearly everytime. Again, make sure your source image is good to begin with.

I hope these suggestions help. Jim Scott Napa Valley California

-- Jim Scott (wgd@napanet.net), November 16, 1998.