Making "sepia" prints - problems

[Darryl Baird]

Ted,

Over several years my method for making sepia inkjets prints I've settled on two methods that tend to give consistent results over different printing sessions.

1) Convert the image to Grayscale, then to a Duotone using a Pantone preset, with 144 (orange) as the warm ink, the convert to RGB (Adobe) and print. I get good results when the system is color calibrated and I use either Hahnemuhle Rag, Moab Entrada, or even Epson Enhanced Matte. 144 tends to give a reddish-brown color reminiscent of a salt-print, 478 is more tame (brown-green) and might be what you want.

2) Use Quadtone Rip (QTR 2.2) for printing. I think I use a mix of "carbon" and "warm" for the prints, netting a chocolate brown color. The problem with this approach is NOT being able to preview the color before printing, nonetheless with a few experiments, I can get very consistent color. I tend to use matte papers, which allows for more choices using QTR.

[Richard Wall]

I am actually struggling with this same issue right now. I am helping small museum digitize and print some antique images. The problem I'm running into is that none of their equipment is calibrated, and they do not have the funds to calibrate and maintain a properly calibrated system. The result is they get wild shifts in color hue between prints.

To simplify the process, I am thinking about getting some warm tone inkjet paper and printing grayscale images on it. Both Hahnemuhle and Inkpress sell a warm tone inkjet paper. Has anyone else tried this method? If so does it work?


Richard

[Darryl Baird]

Richard,

If the prints are different colors (even monochrome prints have a color), how would warmtone paper solve the problem? It only has a single color to offer.

I'd suggest the QTR approach and find a setting that is close to the original. QTR is a RIP, so it doesn't require a fully calibrated system to produce a consistent print... it can send the printer the correct mix of color inks per a given setting. Look at:
http://www.quadtonerip.com/html/QTRoverview.html

[Richard Wall]

The thought was that the warm tone paper would mimic the aged paper of the antique print. Then printing gray scale would remove the color variable from the printing process. I have not actually tried this yet, but I was thinking it would be easier to achieve consistent results, as it has been the color shifts that have been the problem.

I have just been looking at the Quad Tone Rip. It does look interesting, and the share ware price is reasonable. I'll download a copy and give it a try.

Richard

Richard,

If the prints are different colors (even monochrome prints have a color), how would warmtone paper solve the problem? It only has a single color to offer.

I'd suggest the QTR approach and find a setting that is close to the original. QTR is a RIP, so it doesn't require a fully calibrated system to produce a consistent print... it can send the printer the correct mix of color inks per a given setting. Look at:
http://www.quadtonerip.com/html/QTRoverview.html

[Darryl Baird]

I used the software for a couple of years before buying a license, it just kept getting better and better, so I decided it needed my support. For the modest money it cost to be "legal" it provides capabilities worth a lot of money in this new and expensive inkjet market.


Try it for free and if it serves your needs, the rest is up to you. Can't beat the price or product. (full disclosure = I have no connection to Roy Harrington, or QTR software, but I'm a big fan/user)

[Dave Aharonian]

I'll join the club and recommend using QTR. I started using it recently to make digital negatives but I've also been using it to make very nice warm toned b&w prints. Its well worth the $50.

[Frank Petronio]

OTR again...

[tim atherton]

Thanks all - some great answers and suggestions - Bob, that overprinting is a great idea - tried it, tweaked the 1st run colour a bit - and it gives and excellent result. Looks very good.

On QTR - I use it for a lot of my normal b&w printing and it's great, but I find that when you pump up the Sepia or the Warm to the point you need for these kind of prints (where the tone/tint in the original is quite strong) then it tends towards what a lot of the "all in one" sepia options do - the various PS plugins or Actions - it puts in too much Magenta.

I also ran across a couple of actions (I copied them/downloaded them - I'll have to track back through the several dozen I looked at yesterday and friday... to find where they came from), which work very well indeed - especially if you apply them in a duplicate layer so you can tweak the end result via the Opacity.

But keep em coming if anyone has some more suggestions... :-)

Oh - on the warm paper - it's quite a good idea, and one I've used in the past, but you need to find a paper that really is warm enough (and some of the very warm ones give strange/nasty colour crossovers - especially with greyscale...).

[dwhistance]

I don't know what printer you are using for this and you may not want to go down this route but if it is an Epson desktop then why not try a set of Jon Cone's Sepia K7 inks? Print tone will be consistent from print to print and the colour, to my eyes at least, is excellent. On a desktop printer they can also be swapped in and out with minimal disturbance.

David Whistance

[Ken Lee]

Hi Tim -

Can you post an image which shows what you are trying to mimic ?

Are you are looking for something more... Orange ?

There are lots of old photos on www.leegallery.com (No relation to me). The range of colors is endless, but very few could be called "sepia".