ICC profiles for Staples papers?

[charlesheckel]

<p>Just got off chat with Staples. Their stores know nothing about color management and ICC profiles, none are available on their web site, and their customer service lackeys are likewise lacking. Anyone know anything about the source of Staples' papers so I can track down a proper profile?</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>A profile is tri-combo of both "printer model ; printer ink type and paper type used".<br /> <br /> A place like Staples could use all sorts of different papers.<br /> <br /> What printers they use varies by region; by each store. Thus your quest is odd. The wrong profile can be worse than using none; thus beware of hokey/goofy results. A store like Staples could probably have a million different possible profiles.<br /> <br /> Even if you know their paper; you have to know the printer and ink/toner type to use a correct profile.<br /> It is sort of like you want to how how much powder; but you do not know the bullet casing or slug:)<br>

<br /> Even if somebody there knows about profiles they have to use the paper for that profile; and not some rank stuff for pie charts!</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>Charles;</p>

<p>If you wanted Andrew here to make you a custom profile; He would have to know your Staples printer types; settings; maybe if they use RIPs too.</p>

<p>Then there is the paper used; which can be a rats nest of confusion since it can be uncontrolled in the Office Box store arena. </p>

<p>They one has the issue if the store has their machine even calibrated that day; week; or year too. If they did calibrate the printer; what paper did they use?</p>

 

[wpahnelas]

<p>i know what you mean about how staples staff knows very little about what they sell.<br>

i use their "satin" finish paper in my epson 1400, and use the epson premium luster paper type; same with the premium glossy, where i use epson's equivalent when i configure my job for the printer.<br>

that's not at all scientific, i know, but the results are quite close to epson's papers for all intents and purposes. meanwhile, i don't get any where near as good results with HP or Kodak branded papers.</p>

[steve_dunn2]

<p>One caution: I've used a couple of Staples papers (gloss and satin) and have had poor display life from my HP Photosmart 7960 using genuine HP ink cartridges. Let me put it this way: I have a photo on HP paper that is several years old and gets hit briefly with late-day sunlight pretty much any day it's sunny (plus normal interior lighting), and it looks very good; I have several pictures on Staples papers that are two or thee years old and never exposed to sunlight (only normal interior lighting) and have faded <em>very</em> badly. I have several others that rarely see any sort of light, only being brought out to be looked at, and they've held up well.</p>

 

<p>Now, that's not to say that all Staples papers are bad. As someone else pointed out, they may change suppliers from time to time; that sort of thing is quite common for store-brand products in many industries. The box you buy today may have a different paper in it than the box I bought last year. Or the box I buy in Canada may be from a different supplier than the box you buy in some other country.</p>

 

<p>In the shorter term, their papers (at least the two I've tried) include a sheet suggesting what printer profile to use for each paper in various types of printers. Their recommendations work well for me. But I don't need the results to be exact; I just need them to look good. For anything that doesn't need to last long enough to fade, I've been happy with the results. But I do recognize that there are many people for whom close-enough is not adequate; that's fair, and in that case, you'd probably be best to look at a name-brand paper (whether that's from your printer manufacturer or a respected paper company).</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>use a similar epson paper profile to test.. if its not good, you need a custom paper profile that will require that you first print a target on this paper following the instruction carefully from the person who will make it for you, normally you print using no color management a test chart on the paper you like, you send it in a hard envelop so it does not bend, the person receive it, read it, create the profile and send it back to you via email.</p>

<p>a service like that cost normally from 50$ -100$ + postage.. and have to be done for 1 paper and at all the print quality, i mean 720, 1440, 2880 dpi if you intend to use this paper at different print quality... if you only use 1440 like me, just 1 profile will do.</p>

<p>I think it is too much trouble to buy no name paper and have custom profile made for them vs buying epson paper. If the paper is really really amazing i can understand.. but i doubt that a stapple papaer is.. maybe it is really cheap?</p>

[acedigital]

<p>COSTCO provides ICC profiles for their Epson inkjet prints which are pretty damn amazing, $5.99 for a 16x20, $8.99 for a 20x30 poster, I print to file (jpeg) out of the Lightroom Print Module and specifify the ICC profile (downloaded from the Photo Site) and upload. Prints are generally ready in 2-3 hrs can't beat it with a stick! I have a Epson printer that will do 13x19, it has been sitting idle since!</p><div></div>

[chas_frady]

<p>I tried Staples best paper once, and actually got good color results when allowing my printer to do the color management. I printed to an HP dye ink printer, the 8750, using the media type setting for HP Advanced Photo paper (same as used by the B9180). I don't have these prints displayed anywhere so can't speak about fading.</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>Charles; are you asking for ICC Profiles for:</p>

<p>(1) Staples print shop</p>

<p>(2) Your own printer with Staplespaper?</p>

<p>It looks like many folks are talking about case (2); when you question to me sounds more like case (1)</p>

[peter_foiles2]

<p>Kelly,<br>

To the best of my knowledge Staples does not offer a photo printing service, at least the Staples where I live do not. (Color copies yes, but not photo printing). They do however sell consumer grade photo printers along with the ink and paper to go with them. So Charles is almost certainly asking about your #2.</p>

[charlesheckel]

<p>Yes, Kelly, it's #2 as Peter suggests.<br>

Yes, Patrick, it's quite inexpensive for large format paper, and as that is hard to find in retail stores where I live, I would have tried it given a proper profile; but you're right--not worth the cost of an independent profile, especially considering that the source is variable.<br>

I'm still trying to figure out how they sell the stuff as their "premium" store brand without a profile--I suppose it's just a matter of pressing the Easy button. Thanks to everyone for your contributions.</p>