Piezography on Epson 3000

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Preparing Your File : : : [assign profile] [soft proof] [unsharp mask ]

Printing Your File : : : [printer panel] [photoshop] [epson drivers]


Preparing Your File for Printing

On the mac called “Alfred Stieglitz” open a grayscale document in Adobe Photoshop.

If prompted to assign a profile, check “Discard the embedded profile (don’t color manage)” and click OK

Assign Profile

Manually assign Gamma Gray 1.8 profile by doing the following:

      1. Click on Edit > Assign Profile
      2. Choose Gamma Gray 1.8
      3. Click “OK”

Soft Proofing

Set up a soft proof (a printer/paper - dependent preview of the printed page) by:

  1. Click View > Proof Setup > Custom.
  2. Under Profile choose the profile for the paper type you are using (example: EP3000PTSTP_HANptoRag). Be sure that you select a profile beginning in EP3000PTSTP_ as this is specific to the the ink set we are using. If your paper is not listed, you will have to experiment with a similar paper’s profile to get the best results.
  3. As soon as you choose the profile, your image will be displayed in four garish shades of cyan, magenta, and yellow. Check "Preserve RGB Numbers" and "Simulate Black Ink."
  4. Click “OK.”

Now you are free to edit (using adjustment layers, so as not to permanently lose data) for the best color, saturation, etc.

Be sure there are no unwanted white or black lines along the border of your image; they give a false histogram reading and waste ink.

Unsharp Mask

When you have edited and are satisfied with the look of your image, you will want to sharpen it to preempt any blurring that might occur on the printer. To accomplish this:

Select your topmost visible layer
Click Select > All (Ctrl-A)
Click Edit > Copy Merged (Shft-Ctrl-C)
Click Edit > Paste (Ctrl-V)

This pastes a copy of your image, merged with the adjustment curves, on top of the other layers. On this layer, you will apply the Unsharp Mask filter and make some changes to enhance the image’s sharpness.

To use Unsharp Mask successfully, use the following guide when deciding on your settings. These are just suggestions, not hard and fast rules:

ALL IMAGES:
Amount = 100%
Threshold = 4

60-100MB IMAGES:
Radius = 4 to 9

30MB IMAGES:
Radius = 2 to 5

1MB IMAGES:
Radius = .3 to 1.5

With the above guidelines in mind, then,
on your new layer:

On Layers palette, set the Blending Mode (default = Normal) to Luminosity

Set the Layer opacity to somewhere between 60 and 100% opacity.

Printing Your Image

On the Printer

In Photoshop

Back on the main Print Preview screen, under the Color Management drop down:

You may also uncheck “Center Image” in the position region and drag the image where you wish to conserve paper. Be sure that you leave a .2 inch border in both the top and left boxes.

Click Print -- this launches Epson’s print driver dialog box.


Using Epson Drivers

In the printer dialog box, make sure that the Printer field is populated with the Stylus COLOR 3000 (FW:Manual Feed (Banner)).

In the printer dialog box, choose “Print Settings” from the drop down menu:

In the printer dialog box, click “Color Management:”

Click Print.