Printing greyscale images on inkjet

  • Thread starter Thread starter MikeD
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MikeD

I have scanned some old B&W photos as 8-bit greyscale images and I'm trying
to print them using my Epson Stylus Photo 890. I get best results in colour
mode, as using just the black ink gives a coarse result, but the prints have
a bluish tinge. I've tried all the driver settings, and using colour
management, but can't improve things.

Are there any clever tricks out there for improving the print quality? E.g.
is it worth investing in Epson ink...?

Mike
 
MikeD said:
I have scanned some old B&W photos as 8-bit greyscale images and I'm trying
to print them using my Epson Stylus Photo 890. I get best results in colour
mode, as using just the black ink gives a coarse result, but the prints have
a bluish tinge. I've tried all the driver settings, and using colour
management, but can't improve things.
Click to expand...

Tried aligning the carts?

I believe it's also possible to get a "Quad Black" cart set for some
printers. These replace colour carts with grey ink but need a new driver.
Not sure about the 890.
 
Tried aligning the carts?
Click to expand...

No, but I will tonight!
I believe it's also possible to get a "Quad Black" cart set for some
printers. These replace colour carts with grey ink but need a new driver.
Not sure about the 890.
Click to expand...

Sounds interesting, I will investigate.

Thanks for the info.

Mike
 
If the image is too blue, you need to add yellow in the driver. If the
tint is more cyan, you need to add red, if it is magenta add green, and
vice versa. If between these add a mixture. You should be able to get
something closer to neutral grayscale with driver adjustment, however,
if you are using 3rd party inks, you may not be able to match the ink
with the profiles Epson provides.

Try making or acquiring a step wedge. This is a set of small patches of
neutral gray steps going from 100%k to 0K (or white).

You can probably find one on the internet to use.

For instance, there is one here:

http://www.mediapiculture.net/360days/about

Make sure you convert it into grayscale file format if it isn't, so it
doesn't have any hidden or obvious color tints in any of the step
densities. Then print it using the drivers for your printer as you have
them set, using colored ink. If you see great differences in the tint
balance in different step densities, the profile for the inks you are
using in not correct. You can try moving the driver sliders, but you
will never get a neutral result over the whole range, since the sliders
tend to move the tint universally across the steps.

Epson's own inks may give you better results, since their printer ink
profiles and papers are designed together.

Art
 
I have scanned some old B&W photos as 8-bit greyscale images and I'm trying
to print them using my Epson Stylus Photo 890. I get best results in colour
mode, as using just the black ink gives a coarse result, but the prints have
a bluish tinge. I've tried all the driver settings, and using colour
management, but can't improve things.

Are there any clever tricks out there for improving the print quality? E.g.
is it worth investing in Epson ink...?

Mike
Click to expand...

Printing accurate duplicates of what you see on your screen is truely
not a one click operation...

Your scaner has a color profile, your monitor and of course your
printer which is most vulnerable as variances in modes, paper and ink
all play a weighing factor.

I would suggest researching color profiles and management. Start off
of course by gama calibration.. Heck, thats all you may need... But
alot of things add up to an accurate adjustment and usually not just
one item.

Here is a page to start you on your journey if you decide to learn
about color profiles and correction

Also, if you could get a photo editor that manages profiles such as
photoshop or photoshop elements or even acdsee which is economical,
you could atleast manage your color more accurately.


http://194.100.88.243/petteri/pont/How_to/o_Color_Management/_Color_management.html

http://www.photoscientia.co.uk/Gamma.htm
 
Printing accurate duplicates of what you see on your screen is truely
not a one click operation...
Click to expand...

I'm beginning to realise that! I can print colour photos just fine, because
of course I don't know (or care) *exactly* what the colours should be.

Grey scale is a different matter...
Here is a page to start you on your journey if you decide to learn
about color profiles and correction

Also, if you could get a photo editor that manages profiles such as
photoshop or photoshop elements or even acdsee which is economical,
you could atleast manage your color more accurately.
Click to expand...

I'll have a look at the links. I've already played with profiles briefly (I
use Paint Shop Pro 8 which allows this). It didn't make any difference to
what I'm doing, which could be (as Art suggested) because I'm not using
Epson inks.

Mike
 
Arthur said:
If the image is too blue, you need to add yellow in the driver. If the
tint is more cyan, you need to add red, if it is magenta add green, and
vice versa. If between these add a mixture. You should be able to get
something closer to neutral grayscale with driver adjustment, however,
if you are using 3rd party inks, you may not be able to match the ink
with the profiles Epson provides.
Click to expand...
Would not using a Curve adj. in Photoshop achieve the same thing?
 
Would not using a Curve adj. in Photoshop achieve the same thing?
Click to expand...

The images are grey scale, I would have to convert them to colour first.

Something else to try...

Mike
 
MikeD said:
The images are grey scale, I would have to convert them to colour first.

Something else to try...
Click to expand...
D'Oh! I forgot; my greyscales aren't true greyscale, because I convert
to B+W and retain the color info. For some reason, I seem to not get a
color cast on my B+W images.... so far.
 
Sounds interesting, I will investigate.
Click to expand...

This is what I had in mind...
http://www.lyson.com/quad-black-tone.html

However..

Does the 890 have the heads built into the cart or are they part of the
printer? If the head isn't built into the cart think carefully before you
switch over. You would really only want to do this if you needed a printer
dedicated to B&W all the time. It would be very expensive to switch back and
forth - you would have to do a lot of flushing of heads/plumbing and these
things era prone to getting blocked.
 
The images are grey scale, I would have to convert them to colour first.

Something else to try...

Mike
Click to expand...


Well, The best way is starting off with color images and using
adjustment layers. This will give you total control over tones after
the image is desaturated.

Either way, you could convert your workspace into RGB and use channels
or color mixing to control your tones but the main problem appears
that you are NOT printing what you are seeing on screen. That problem
needs to be addressed... Adjusting and mixing the drivers and ink
amounts it not a good way of acurate printing.

Get yourself calibrated properly and nothing else matters.
 
kryl said:
Well, The best way is starting off with color images and using
adjustment layers. This will give you total control over tones after
the image is desaturated.
Click to expand...

That's the way I usually do it, and it works well using two adj. layers,
one of which is set to color blend and can adj. each channel.
Either way, you could convert your workspace into RGB and use channels
or color mixing to control your tones but the main problem appears
that you are NOT printing what you are seeing on screen. That problem
needs to be addressed... Adjusting and mixing the drivers and ink
amounts it not a good way of acurate printing.

Get yourself calibrated properly and nothing else matters.
Click to expand...
Yes, but that implies calibrating the monitor and the printer. Even if
the monitor is perfectly calibrated, the OP still needs help in removing
the color cast in the absence of a calibrated printer.
 
kryl wrote:
[...] but the main problem appears
that you are NOT printing what you are seeing on screen. That problem
needs to be addressed...
Click to expand...

Yes, and it ain't easy. Different monitors will display the same colours
differently. People's eyes see colours differently. Ink colours change
in subtle ways when different papers are used. Some papers will fade the
different inks in the image at different rates because of acid or base
residues used to make the paper pH neutral (but falsely labelled
acid-free). The image will appear to have different colours when viewed
in different light. And so on. Sigh.
Adjusting and mixing the drivers and ink
amounts it not a good way of acurate printing.

Get yourself calibrated properly and nothing else matters.
Click to expand...

Do you have any recomnmendations for calibration software?

Thanks.
 
Epson's own inks may give you better results, since their printer ink
profiles and papers are designed together.
Click to expand...
I've seen better results than Epson with Permajet Blax and Permajet
papers actually (or Permajet Blax and several other makes of papers as
well.)

The problem with the 890 is that it's using colour so you're into
colour management. Generally, I find that allowing the printer to do
any colour management whatsoever is a big mistake.

The best solution is a dedicated B&W printer using, for example, the
inks mentio0ned above. Next best is properly colour managing. Worst is
adjusting the printer management because you can be sure that it'll be
different for almost every print.
 
Do you have any recomnmendations for calibration software?

Thanks.
Click to expand...


Gretag MacBeth EyeOne. If you can't afford anything else, make sure
you calibrate your monitor. Of course, you do need editing software
which is colour management aware.
 
The best solution is a dedicated B&W printer using, for example, the
inks mentio0ned above. Next best is properly colour managing. Worst is
adjusting the printer management because you can be sure that it'll be
different for almost every print.
Click to expand...

Thanks to all for your helpful suggestions. My problem really is that I only
have 3 B&W photos to print. They are long (about 44") which is something the
Epson 890 can do, but given a choice between spending weeks of my life
learning and applying colour management or getting a lab to print them for
me, I might go for the latter!

Mike
 
The original poster didn't indicate he had any image manipulation
software other than a scanner and it's program, and his printer.

As a result, I sent him to his printer driver, since that I knew he had
access to. There are hundreds of image programs out there, and each has
probably a dozen or more tools for color corrections, each providing
different degrees of sophistication. In Photoshop alone, I can think of
at least 10 different ways of playing with color balance.

Since I have no idea of what programs the poster may or may not have,
nor his degree of familiarity with any he might, and since I have no
idea how much time he wishes to take learning about this, I provided as
quick and dirty an answer as possible. ;-)

Art
 
Since your images are in greyscale already, and I assume you are seeing
something approaching greyscale on your monitor, I would be more apt to
try to make ink adjustments in the printer driver to see if you can find
a "easy" answer.

Art
 
I'm, assuming the poster has a few black and white photos he scanned and
wished to make neutral copies of. If so (and maybe I'm wrong), he isn't
going to make a piezo B&W printer out of his color printer. He also
likely isn't going to invest the time and possibly money in trying to
get perfect color management.

I was trying to provide him with the simplest solution for getting rid
of a color cast. Using the driver sliders is not something I usually
recommend, but it can be a fast fix, and can sometimes work.

I suggest trying very small thumbnails, and seeing how they look. He
may just hit something close enough to be OK. Some Epson printers have
good enough profiles, if you use their inks and their papers to get
something approaching B&W using their color inks.

Depending on the nature of the image, especially if it is an old image
anyway, sometimes pushing the image to look sepia can look quite nice.
If the poster has an image program, they may provide him with a duotone,
tritone or quadtone set of filters. I find that if you are stuck with
color casts, if you at least push them in a direction toward something
people recognize or accept as "normal" (Sepia can vary in warmth quite a
bit) it can be acceptable. A pure greyscale is hard to produce with
color inks, although I have seen perfect ones coming from Epson printers
when set up correctly.

Art
 
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