Can profiling control CMYK exactly?

[ghwellsjr]

I would like to lay down four patches of the four dye ink colors, something like you see with a nozzle check, except I don't need the photo cyan and photo magenta and I don't need the pigment black. I could use the nozzle check except that there is a lot of white space between the dots. I want much denser blocks of color. I can almost do this if I specify plain paper and simply draw four blocks in Paint and specify the four colors, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Each color will be printed from a single ink cartridge but the problem is that the black will use the pigment black ink instead of the dye black ink. Many of the photo paper types will work for cyan, magenta and yellow but every one of them mixes all four dye inks together to make black and I only want to use the dye black ink to make the black block.

My question: Can profiling solve this problem? I don't mean taking the normal process of creating a profile with software that prints out a pattern that is then scanned and analyzed and creates a bunch of files, I'm asking if a profile is something that a person could generate so that if I say I want solid 100% cyan, it prints using only the cyan ink, and the same for the other three colors? I don't care what it would do if I tried to print anything else, except of course white which shouldn't print anything.

 

[qwertydude]

I think since profiling only tells the printer what color to print it cannot control the drivers which tell the printer what inks to use. I know if I tell my Epson Artisan 50 printer to print on plain paper and I print solid blocks of color like magenta that it will use magenta for the most part but it still uses some photo magenta. And that's with a profile using plain paper on a photo paper setting.

So unfortunately setting the printer to any photo paper to avoid using the pigment black and you may be stuck with the printer mixing photo colors in there.

 

[The Hat]

ghwellsjr if I say I want solid 100% cyan, it prints using only the cyan ink, and the same for the other three colors?

Sadly I found that if I print a single 2x4 block of ink colour be it cyan, magenta, or yellow in turn, that the printer mixes some of if not all of the four colours to achieve the said block colour.
If you take out each cartridge in turn and squeeze a little on to paper and spread it, then match the block colour output from the printer they tend to be a different shade.
The only way to be really sure is to use a densitometer on the colour swatches..

 

[ghwellsjr]

I should have mentioned the printer I'm using. It is a Canon iP4000 or MP780 which use the same print head and only has four dye ink cartridges plus the pigment black. There is no photo cyan ink or photo magenta ink but the nozzle check produces blocks which I (incorrectly) called "photo cyan" and "photo magenta". They are really just "light" versions of the inks produced from another set of nozzles. I don't care if any ink comes from those nozzles because it is the same ink. Sorry for the confusion.

I already know that if I draw a solid block of cyan, magenta, or yellow and specify certain paper types with certain print qualities, etc, I can get the printer to use only one ink, cyan, magenta, or yellow. I don't know and I don't care if that ink comes through the "dark" or the "light" set of nozzles. The point is that each block is not a mixture of any other inks.

The problem is that if I want to lay down a solid block of black dye ink, the printer will always mix in some of the other dye inks, no matter what photo paper type or print qualities, etc, I specify. If I specify plain paper, the printer will use only the pigment black ink and not mix it with any of the dye inks. I could solve my problem by cleaning a BCI-3eBk cartridge and filling it with dye black ink but I would rather not do that.

My question is: will profiling allow me to print using only the dye black ink when printing a solid block of 100% black? I'm assuming that if it is possible it would be done by editing one of more of the files used in profiling as opposed to the normal process of generating profiles.

 

[Smile]

Profiling is not going to help you since your printer is RGB device and you need to tell it to print certain CMYK color. That means you must use something called RIP driver or software to tell the printer what to print. I mean what colors to print and at what density.

RIP linearization routine usually has the colors you seek, but I doubt any RIP is available for small format Canon printer. You can try Turboprint 2 RIP but it's only for linux, or PrintFab 2 RIP but it's only for Mac.

Profiling is simply standardize your printer output to a known standard like D65 that's why if you calibrate your monitor to same D65 standard the print matches the screen. And same print made on different printers looks identical to naked eye if the printer technical specifications are similar (both inkjet with similar composition ink, both laser with similar toner etc.)

You can't match dye sub to inkjet, or inkjet to laser.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Are you saying that profiling is something that happens between an application and the printer driver? If so, is there any way to do something that affects the printer driver itself? Is that what RIP software does or does RIP software replace the normal printer driver and become its own printer driver? Is that why you doubt that there is any RIP software available for a Canon MP780?