Epson Surecolor P400 Issues?...

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If I may interject a little gentle comment or two into this thread...

Julia, completely understand your reticence to relearn or rather start over when the tool you used to use has been forcibly replaced by some new fangled gadget with extra bells and whistles that you neither wanted, nor work the way your old faithful tool did. Regrettably, barring an old R1800 turning up on eBay or similar, you're kind of stuck with this thing so it may be worth taking a step back a few paces to reconsider things as a chance to improve on your skills and possibly the results you achieve as a result.

To that end, getting your computer monitor and the limited selection of papers you use, profiled so that the monitor and printer have the option to speak clearly to each other would be a great first step. The nice thing about profiles is that you are not wedded to them. You can change, disable and even replace them as your preference dictates. That gives you a chance to keep using your existing methodology a'la Jackson Pollock but also the opportunity to learn new techniques when you have the time and/or inclination.

My guess is that if you have the option to rage quit as/when you feel the artistic temperament needs it, you'll be more inclined to adopt a more empirical approach at your own pace. Dare I say it's one of those things that will stand you in much better stead and my own children prove to me that even an old dog such as myself can learn so long as there's nobody pushing hard to make it happen.

As to the advice and support available, I'm more than sure that folk here will help at a pace that suits you if you've the inclination... If nought else it would be an interesting project that would doubtless help many other non-artists to get to grips with what, at times, appears like a foreign language from a different planet.

Whatever the decision... and there's no rush... best of luck with it.

 

[Julia]

Hello again all, I can't understand how to raise a new issue with my P400 without going back to the old thread. And while I am here I am sorry I got some-ones 'name' wrong last time I posted (long time ago). I couldn't work out how to apologise. I find your web-site difficult to understand. Probably old-age!
Well, the latest problem is the P400 is not centering on A3 paper. It has been fine for about 10 prints (not all printed at the same time) but has just done it twice consecutively. It is a bit like its old tricks on A4 where sometimes it pretended to print or printed in the wrong place. That seems to have stopped (prayers!)...and I have been printing a lot on A4.
I see that this 'not-centering' is a problem that plagues other Epson printers and which Epson seems unconcerned about. A3 fine art paper is EXPENSIVE as I am sure everyone knows. I don't suppose I can do much about it...as I can see others have done all sorts of experiments to find out what and why...BUT I think anyone buying this printer for serious commercial reasons should be warned. Apart from that I still say that it was a mistake to replace 'blue' with 'orange', leaving different blues effectively the responsibility of cyan only. Apart from these grouses ...very good printer. Except, not-centering on A3 is a pretty fundamental fault! (Yes, I checked every detail of the settings). 'Show preview' also showed the image perfectly centered.
I would be interested to read your comments ...if any! Many thanks. Julia

 

[mikling]

I'm quickly reading through this. There are some aspects which I will briefly discuss. In my experience, two different printers using the same inks and using identical software and hardware to create ICC profiles will end up outputting slightly different images. yes, reread the previous.
First color management and the use of ICC profiles is misunderstood by most. Second, it appears you edited your images within PS to account for the differences in output on the 1800 to get what you wanted finally. This bring is an even more complicated set of problems because now you want to retain the same look on the P400 as you had on the 1800. The P400 would be using different inks and the printer engine is also different.

So I will end up telling you what "should have been done" years ago. Years ago, you should have had your monitor calibrated. Why? because if the monitor years ago was showing more "blue" than your monitor today, how would the printer know you've changed monitors. It won't. So if your screen years ago was too blue, you might have toned down the blue to compensate. Now that's assuming you still used the R1800.
So assuming you still use the 1800, but use a proper monitor today, the print will come out shy of blue because of the previous edit.

Next, the printer. Assuming you used OEM inks and associated ICCs for the respective papers for both printers. Even with the same image file, they will likely look slightly different if one looks carefully. This is because both printers have their shortcomings and if the image file happens to have colors where one printer is weak then it will be slightly deficient in that area, despite the ICC profile.

How does this help you? I'm not sure but it looks like the only way out is to first have your monitor calibrated/profiled/charactered. Second make sure you have ICC profiles for the papers you are using....and the respective inks for those profiles. Next test your setup to make sure that what appears on your calibrated screen appears like what is printed. If not, check the lighting you are viewing in. If still not good enough you need a custom profile.
When you have the preceding done, THEN you can proceed to mimic the old print.

Look at the old print in hand and in the proper light ( very bright!). Now you will want to bring up the image in PS. You will then "softproof" the image in PS. (CS2 is capable of doing this) Edit in softproof and then print it out and see if needs more tweaking. With this workflow, youll get what you want.

Now about the misalignment. As long as you have sufficient white space around your image, you can use a printing program to reposition the image so it prints exactly where you want. Inverting the image may be necessary sometimes. Qimage can also pull this off for you, as long as you understand that direction you are compensating for. Remember when you edit outside of softproofing, you really don't know how much or whether or not the desired changes will be carried through in the printer. Softproofing allows you to see the PRINTED changes before your print.

There is a way to control the offset in printing but this is part of the factory technician setup process. You will not have access to this.

Google softproofing.
https://luminous-landscape.com/understanding-soft-proofing/
https://www.xrite.com/service-support/faq_what_is_and_why_should_you_softproof

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

'centering' - could you please show an actual print example of this mis-centering effect . What are the format/driver settings you are using and additional settings in the software you print from - like edges left/right etc .
Please be aware that the P400 does not 'center' a print as such, the reference for the positioning is the right edge of the paper, there is an edge detector underneath the printhead at the nozzle plate.
Is this a new problem - since when ? only occuring with a particular type of paper ? or specific driver settings ?