Epson P900 and Epson Print Layout with Photoshop

[rdenney]

As most know, I've used an Epson 3800 for many years now. Well, the valve that switches between the two blacks shot craps last week and started spraying black ink all over the inside the printer (including the prints). I decided I'd gotten my money's worth out of it after over a decade of use, and purchased an Epson P900 to replace it.

I have always run Photoshop on a calibrated monitor--currently an Eizo CX271--with a color managed system using an old but functional xRite i1Display. And I've gotten pretty good results using the Epson-supplied profiles for the papers I use, which for a long time now has been Epson Exhibition Fiber. I set up Photoshop with "Photoshop manages colors" and don't use color management in the printer. This works fine for Photoshop but I've not had nearly as consistent results from some of Photoshop's competitors.

Time passes. The software for the P900 includes "Epson Print Layout" which can be installed in Photoshop as a plugin. Apparently, it can be used through the Automate selection in the PS menu. I think for ABW that would be a requirement, but I'm thinking I'll still want Photoshop to manage colors for color prints, using the profile for the paper supplied by the paper manufacturer.

For those of you who are using the newer stuff, is that the correct approach, or should I move everything over to Epson Print Layout and install the paper profiles using that software? It might be that doing such would make Photoshop competitors like DxO Photolab work better for making prints.

And I'm also pondering a switch to Red River Big Bend or Palo Duro baryta-coated papers, because they are available in 17x25 and also because they come on 17" rolls--I may acquire the roll holder for this P900 so that I can do panoramic prints.

Advice welcome.

(Side topic: Adobe has ticked me off again--they announced that the filters will require a more powerful video card than what I've used for some years now, because they have off-loaded the filter processing to the GPU. Sigh. My computer is optimized for main processor performance, and uses an Intel Xeon. But it's an old workstation-class computer, and installing a newer video card was kind of a pain the rear. But I was successful eventually, and now I'm using an Asus Geforce GTX-1660ti, with 6GB or graphics memory. I found one used on ebay for a little over a hundred bucks.)

Rick "keeps up with technology reluctantly" Denney

[Alan9940]

I've found Epson Print Layout an easy and enjoyable tool for printing, though I generally use it as a standalone. It handles the color management side of things just fine and, as a matter of fact, the image preview provides a bit of soft proofing to boot. I wouldn't totally rely on it, but you can't fully rely on soft proofing in PS, either. An actual print is your best proof IMO.

Another benefit to the Epson software installed with your printer is Epson Media Installer, especially if you decide to use Red River papers (Big Bend is one of my favorites.) RR supplies EMY files that are imported into the media installer for all (or nearly all) its papers. If you did this for Big Bend, for example, then Big Bend would show up as a media choice. And, the really nice part is that all necessary driver parameters--like platen gap for thick papers, extended dry time, etc--are all automagically loaded for you. EZPZ!

Hope this helps.