Epson 7600 printer

[Garry Thorburn]

Can anyone help?
I have an Epson 7600 A1 printer, bought second hand, and I haven't been using it much.
I want to try and using it a lot more, but am having problems printing variations of red
and colours are a little light/dull at times.
Red prints okay, but again a little light, burgandies and deep reds come out as browns.
Is this a profile problem or maybe ink?
I am using compatible inks and coated paper and canvas.
Most photo work is fine, but graphic/illustration work isn't good enough.
Colours aren't nearly as vibrant as my A4 and A3 printers.
Is the 7600 capable of competing with small format print quality, or does jumping to large format mean a loss of the depth of colours?
Anyone got any advice?

[Bruce Watson]

This forum's focus is large format photography, mostly about cameras, lenses, tripods, and accessories. While there is some wide format inkjet printer traffic here it is a very small part of what this forum is about.

A better place to get help with wide format printing might be the yahoo group dedicated to it. It's called EpsonWideFormat IIRC. There is also a generic wide format group called Wide_Inkjet_Printers.

For what it's worth, if you haven't been printing much you could be seeing pigment settling. Shake your carts and print some -- it will take a while to get the freshly shaken ink through the lines to the heads though -- you'll have to waste a 50x40 cm print or so...

[tjvitale]

Go to the Epson Support for the 9600/7600 and download the special profiles made by Bill Atkinson for the 2000-era printers.

If you are already using these fabulous tools, then there is either a fault in your print head **or** you are a victim of the profile A2B conversion, where the PCS conversion from RGB to LAB color space is used in profile processing. Your RGB colors go through the LAB color space, when the profile is applied, which makes the reds and blues different colors and lowers the saturation of all most all colors. Explore Bruce Lindbloom’s comments on the non-uniformity of the LAB color space; see his Uniform Perceptual LAB color space page <http://brucelindbloom.com/index.html?UPLab.html>; also explore the Munsell Display Calculator <http://brucelindbloom.com/index.html?MunsellCalculator.html>.

Be sure to run the advanced head cleaning utility, if you are seeing any gaps in the nozzle check. Use a magnifying tool to check for those tiny gaps.

If you have ColorThink, check the gamuts’ of the various printers you are using, to see if the older Ultrachrome inks have a smaller footprint than the more modern inksets you are using.

I have 9600. I'm still in love with the output, but I make facsimiles of historic artifacts that have a limited gamut.

Good Luck!

Tim Vitale
Paper, Photographs &
Electronic Media Conservator
Film (still) Migration to Digital Format
Digital Imaging & Facsimiles
Preservation & Imaging Consulting
Preservation Associates
1500 Park Avenue
Suite 132
Emeryville, CA 94608

510-594-8277
510-594-8799 fax
tjvitale@ix.netcom.com http://briefcase.yahoo.com/tvitale@pacbell.net
[Use of the above URL may require a "Yahoo! ID" to download files.]

NEW: VideoPreservation Website <http://videopreservation.stanford.edu>

[Jon Shiu]

...
Is this a profile problem or maybe ink?...
I am using compatible inks and coated paper and canvas...

What are you using for profiles? You would need to use custom profiles for those inks and each different type of paper.

Jon

Note: "compatible inks" means non-Epson inks so no profiles based on Epson inks will work

[Michael T. Murphy]

Use the Bill Atkinson profiles for your paper, as mentioned. Or use other custom profiles from the paper manufacturer, etc.

Use soft proofing to view the way your image will look on your specific paper using the ICC profiles. Depending on the paper you may need to boost saturation, etc.

The Ultrachrome pigment inks will not have as much "pop" as dye inks on glossy paper. But they should have good color and they should be accurate.

As mentioned, shake the ink carts to re-suspend teh pigments. You should also check the expiration date on the inks.

Good luck!

[tjvitale]

I didn't see the comment about using "compatible” inks. That is the first place I'd look. If you can afford it buy a full set of Epson 110 ml carts to test if there is a difference. Please report back, I’d like to know the answer. I'm guessing that there will be a difference.

If you can’t afford a full Epson inkset, try replacing (one or two) compatible ink carts with Epson Magenta and Epson Yellow carts. These will make the most difference in the “red” problem you are reporting, if that is the source of the problem.

As far as the Atkinson profiles, they compensate for the non-linearity of the 7600/9600 printer driver output, from the RGB in the image to printer’s CcMmYKk inks. Bill discovered the problem and solved it for his output application; he then gave us his hard-won tools; he saved my bacon. Atkinson made the Epson printer revolution. In most subsequent generations of Epson printers, Epson recognized the issue and linearize their "frontend" (driver) so that normal profiles (made using about 1000+ color patches) work well. Normal profiles will not work well on the 7600/9600; I was using Gretag’s ProfileMaker with their 4000+ patch set; Atkinson's profiles blew them away.

[Michael T. Murphy]

I didn't see the comment about using "compatible” inks. That is the first place I'd look.

Oh, I missed that too! Off-the-shelf profiles and the rest of it won't do you much good with most compatible ink, unless it is a perfect match for the Epson ink.

Compatible ink ranges from pure junk - with a 1 week life expectency before fading - to pretty good. Most is not even as good as the Epson Ultrachrome ink in the 7600, much less the newer 7800 and 7880 inks (K3 and K3 Vivid.)

Here is a Wilhelm article about some of the compatible inks and their longevity. Note the G&G ink, for example, which is very popular on Ebay and other refilling sites.

Wilhelm rates the longevity of the G&G at 1.8 years unframed, and the ozone longevity at .4 years. That comparews to 54 years and 100+ years for the Epson Durabrite (4 color) ink. The 6 color compatible inks are even worse:

http://www.wilhelm-research.com/epson/durabrite.html

Good luck!

[Don Hayes]

I just picked up a 7600 second hand and the driver was not included. I'm trying to locate an original so that I can update the frimware from BN0434 P. I have searched the net looking for the original driver but can't find one. Does anyone have a copy or know how I can download one. Thanks

[Jim Becia]

I just picked up a 7600 second hand and the driver was not included. I'm trying to locate an original so that I can update the frimware from BN0434 P. I have searched the net looking for the original driver but can't find one. Does anyone have a copy or know how I can download one. Thanks

Don,

Just go to the Epson site and you can download the most up to date driver from there. Jim

[Ben Hopson]

This is the link to the Epson driver download page which includes the 7600. Just select your printer. http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/s...oType=Overview