I'm failing an intelligence test: ColorMunki, Epson and fine art paper

<p>I have a ColorMunki device, which I've used to create profiles on glossy paper. I now want to create a profile for some fine art paper to print with my Epson 3880. In order to print my test strip, I need to set the printer for fine art paper, but those choices are grayed out in the print dialogue. I know that if I'm trying to print from an application like Lightroom, I can use Page Setup (I'm on a Mac) to pick the manual feed slot on the printer, which causes the fine art papers to become available in the print dialog box. But the there is no Page Setup available (at least that I can find) for printing the ColorMunki target, which right now means that all I can print is from the sheet feeder, which means that I can't pick a fine art surface, or, for that matter, use matte black ink. What am I missing here?</p>

<p>Since no one else has chimed in yet, I'll try. With my Epson 2880 I have to make sure the proper black ink is selected in the printer utility tab. I'm not sure if that's the case for the 3880. I hope this helps.</p>

<p>Ok, I'm now going to answer my own question. The X-Rite people have told me it can't be done. That's right; they say it's Epson's fault. The pre-Lion Epson driver had both a "Page Setup" and a print dialog box. You use the page setup in setting up your page. You use the print dialog when you're about to print. In the page setup, you can select the rear feeder, which the the one you must use for fine art paper. If you don't select that, then the printer won't allow you to select fine art paper as the media type. In the pre-Lion driver, you could also select the rear feeder in the print dialog box. That's no longer true in Lion. You're stuck with the sheet feeder, unless you selected the rear feeder in the page setup box. The problem, though, is that X-Rite's ColorMunki does not offer a page setup box, just the final print dialog. Result: there's no way to select the rear feeder, and therefore no way to select fine art as the paper type. The X-Rite people tell me it's all Epson's fault. Meanwhile, the ColorMunki cannot be used to profile fine art paper on the Epson 3880, or any other of their printers that use the Mac Lion driver.</p>

<p>Can't you just print the test target through another app like Lightroom, Safari, Preview, Photoshop, etc. to have ColorMunki measure and build the profile for the fine art paper?</p>

<p>I'm not familiar with the ColorMunki but all that's required in building a profile in general is a linear print of the test target or a print of this target using a setting in the printer driver that prints consistently the same with no auto color adjustments in the driver.</p>

<p>Actually, no. The target resides in some secret spot in the ColorMunki software. That would be a good idea, otherwise. If I could find some way to do what you suggest, I'd be on it right away.</p>

<p>I think I may have found a workaround. It's a good thing, too, because Epson hasn't been much help. They don't seem inclined to change the way they do things just to enable X-Rite to sell more devices. Anyway, if I go to Lightroom (and, I presume, any printing application) and use Page Setup to change the <em>default</em> setting for the Epson to rear feeder, then the ColorMunki print dialog (I know, it's actually Epson's, but it's the one that appears when you try to print from ColorMunki) shows the rear feeder as the print path. I note that you can't change that to any other option, but I don't think that matters for profiling, as I think you can feed all sorts of paper through the rear feeder. I suppose that becomes a pain for doing regular print jobs (if you normally use another path), but you only have to change the default to rear feeder when you are in the mood for profiling some papers. You can always change it back the rest of the time. Awkward for sure, but at least it seems likely to work.</p>

<p>X-Rite are wrong about this being Epson's fault when it really is Apple's for changing the way the print path is handled. There was an extensive discussion of this over on the Luminous Landscape. Apple makes these changes and really doesn't give third party vendors sufficient time to make changes to drivers/software. Since the dialogue box works with Adobe PS/LR the fault has to reside with X-Rite who did not want to recode the ColorMunki software to adapt to the new print path.</p>

<p>The problem you have here is that you can manually switch the black ink using the control panel and printing from the rear feed is straight forward, all you have to do is insert the paper, the printer really doesn't care which feeder you use since it senses which one is being engaged. The worry here is that you really don't know what paper setting the ColorMunki software is using to print the targets if the dialogue box won't open and I wouldn't be certain that the profiles will be valid without that confirmation.</p>

<p>I would go back to X-Rite and demand that they make good on their software.</p>

<p>Alan, in that LuLa discussion was it mentioned why Apple changed the printing path?</p>

<p>I noticed a change going from Tiger to Snow Leopard where I was using unconventional "Printer Manages Color" settings and Epson's AdobeRGB/1.8gamma settings very close color matches as long as the file's RGB numbers were written in AdobeRGB in Tiger. When upgrading to SL I had to have the RGB numbers written in sRGB.</p>

<p>I remember way back in Mac OS Classic that the image's numbers were converted to Quick Draw in the computer to printer pipeline. Was wondering what Apple uses now to deliver RGB numbers to the printer since their entire OS is now color managed. Wonder if Quartz is being utilized.</p>

<p>Tim, I really don't know since I've always used Windows machines. I just see a number of posts complaining about various updates to the Mac OS.</p>