[Steve Baczewski Silver Member Posts: 12]

Printing Colour Management

on: August 7, 2019 at 4:01 pm

I would like to use a laptop as my computer to send images to my Epson 7900 printer. I checked out the latest Apple laptop and the only color space on it was designated P3 and not my usual Adobe 1998. I currently use a BenQ320 SW display for printing and am very impressed with its abilities to manage color, but like I said I want to try out printing from a laptop. I know that many of you use a laptop and wonder if the new Apple is OK and can it use my Spyder 5 with Datacolor software to get a decent profile thats practical for printing. I hope for some answers from the Pxl forum before i pluck down over $3000 for another laptop. Also I am open to suggestions for graphics cards and any other advice to get this show on the road. One more question. Kevin did a wonderful extensive video on shooting and printing with Charley Cramer that is well worth watching. Kevin is that owned my Luminous Landscape or can we expect to see your video make the trip to PXL? Steve

[Kevin Raber Silver Member Posts: 1289]

Re: Color Management with Laptops

Reply #1 on: August 7, 2019 at 4:25 pm

Steve, I am going to have this post moved to the right section.  But as a reply to the Charlie Cramer series.  It is still on LuLa.  We do however have some longer-term plans to bring videos like that to this site.  We’ll keep you posted as we get these larger projects underway.

 

I use my Apple LAptop to print to the Epson P800 and 9900.  I have calibrated the screens both internal and external and they work pretty well for printing.  Remember I used Imageprint for my workflow.  I will have three videos on this in the not so distant future.

 

Kevin Raber
Owner and Publisher of photoPXL

[Dave Chew]

Re: Color Management with Laptops

Reply #2 on: August 8, 2019 at 7:49 am

And I thought I was the only one in the world with a still-functioning 7900…

I use a MBP for everything; in the studio I have it connected to (2) external NEC monitors with the lid closed. The NECs are calibrated with the dedicated i1Display/Spectraview, the MBP screen with an old i1Pro colorimeter/i1Profiler software. When tethered to the camera I am often disconnected from the external monitors, making preliminary image adjustments in Capture One. I find the MBP fine for that preliminary work; I do not find color temperature or brightness to be an issue between the screens. I am calibrated to 5800 degrees, 130 cd/m2 and a 300:1 contrast ratio. Although the pipelines are different, the MBP screen is a good enough match for my purposes. I’ve never tried soft proofing using the MBP screen, simply because my desk is right next to the printer, so it makes sense to always connect to the external monitors when printing. Like Kevin, I am usually printing through ImagePrint so my soft proofing requirements are a bit different.

There are two issues I have with the MBP screen: First, it is too easy to accidentally adjust the screen brightness with the Touch Bar, and there is no way to enter a defined brightness if that happens. You can only move your finger up and down the scale with no reference. So, if you accidentally adjust the brightness you pretty much have to recalibrate. There used to be a script floating around for the old MBP laptop that would allow you to enter a specific percent brightness. I have no idea if that would still work for the new MBP/OSx. I think I got it from Wayne Fox…?

Second, I am still not used to the higher pixel density. My external monitors are not 4k; I prefer the lower resolution. So if you are trying to manage sharpening settings and critical shadow detail, that would take some practice using the MBP screen for printing.

Dave

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains! - John Muir
https://www.davechewphotography.com
Find legacy Schneider-Kreuznach Apo-Digitar lens data here: https://www.davechewphotography.com/skdata/

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Dave Chew.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Dave Chew.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Dave Chew.

[Steve Baczewski Silver Member Posts: 12]

Re: Color Management with Laptops

Reply #3 on: August 8, 2019 at 12:16 pm

Dave Thanks for your answer.  I got a lot from it and more to think about. By the way MBP also stands for a disease Münchausen syndrome by proxy. The 7900 still turns out great prints. I also used Epson’s newer P5000 but I love large prints and to be honest there’s just not that big a difference to my eye. With some of the new papers the blacks( Dmax) are very deep and set off the rest of the colors on the page so I am still pleased with the 7900. It’s a testament to Epson that the machine is still up and running. I would dread hauling it out. S

[Dave Chew]

Re: Color Management with Laptops

Reply #4 on: August 8, 2019 at 6:50 pm

Steve,

When this thing gives up the ghost I’m buying a 44″ printer. I just can’t justify that until the heads blow out. Even then it’s difficult to justify given Epson’s “emergency” service plan:

https://epson.com/Accessories/Printer-Accessories/One-Time-Service-Plan—EPWPSP1R24/p/EPWPSP1R24

Limits the burn to $895 if you have to replace the head. I’ve had mine since Dec 2009; gotta plan a 10-year birthday party! If ever there was a piece of photography gear that qualifies as an “investment,” this was it. Print count is 2576 pages. Even if only 1/4 of those were delivered prints, that’s not a bad deal.

Dave

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains! - John Muir
https://www.davechewphotography.com
Find legacy Schneider-Kreuznach Apo-Digitar lens data here: https://www.davechewphotography.com/skdata/

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Dave Chew.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Dave Chew.

[Aaron Chan Participant Posts: 3]

Re: Color Management with Laptops

Reply #5 on: October 17, 2019 at 1:25 pm

I don’t really understand your question.

You, of course, can print with any computer your want, desktop or laptop. It doesn’t matter.
What matters is how you want to match your print.
If you say you want to match your print to a laptop screen, I would say no to you. It is a physical problem, nothing’s wrong with your laptop, but you are just not supposed to do it like this. Yea, you may calibrate your laptop screen, fix your brightness and maybe you can get a pretty good match, but for long term use, no, just use an external monitor, MUCH BETTER! (I use Eizo:P)

 

aaron

[Jim Kasson Silver Member Posts: 77]

Re: Color Management with Laptops

Reply #6 on: October 17, 2019 at 2:32 pm

Aaron Chan wrote:

. Yea, you may calibrate your laptop screen, fix your brightness and maybe you can get a pretty good match, but for long term use, no, just use an external monitor, MUCH BETTER! (I use Eizo:P)

I second this. Laptop screens have a lot of color variation across the screen, and tend to have color that changes with viewing angle.

 

 

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