Epson LUT print technology

I have previously written that the instructions for Epson Sure Color
P-800 recommend that with Photoshoop CS3 or later, All LR and also PS
Elements 6 or later - the printer should manage colours. I have
confirmed that with CC LR having the printer manage colors gives a
vastly superior result when using Epson Premium Glossy paper. I may
now have discovered why this should be.

Epson in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology have
taken color management to new levels. The problem appears to be that
while with 8 colors there are a zillion ways to blend them to achieve
a particular color there is only one best way. Apparently the
mathematics are complicated but are vastly simplified by use of a
massive Look Up Table (LUT). Presumably all this is built into the
driver.

Down loading the driver results in about a dozen ICC paper profiles
being installed in Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color but these can
only be used with LR and the like. They cannot be loaded into the
driver which reports that they are incompatible (or some such).

My suspicion is that the LUT is available only when the printer
manages colors. I don't know why this should be but that's what it
seems to be. Apparently Epson's larger printers have been using this
for a while and it is now moving to smaller models.

http://factor.bg/epson/SP9900/Maximu...r_fidelity.pdf is a blurb
which doesn't really tell you much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egLCg3GiXIE is also a blurb but gives
more information.

Whatever the explanation I am banging my head on the wall waiting with
great impatience for a version of the driver which incorporates the
profile for Archival Matte paper.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 10/16/2015 11:04 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have previously written that the instructions for Epson Sure Color
P-800 recommend that with Photoshoop CS3 or later, All LR and also PS
Elements 6 or later - the printer should manage colours. I have
confirmed that with CC LR having the printer manage colors gives a
vastly superior result when using Epson Premium Glossy paper. I may
now have discovered why this should be.

Epson in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology have
taken color management to new levels. The problem appears to be that
while with 8 colors there are a zillion ways to blend them to achieve
a particular color there is only one best way. Apparently the
mathematics are complicated but are vastly simplified by use of a
massive Look Up Table (LUT). Presumably all this is built into the
driver.

Down loading the driver results in about a dozen ICC paper profiles
being installed in Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color but these can
only be used with LR and the like. They cannot be loaded into the
driver which reports that they are incompatible (or some such).

My suspicion is that the LUT is available only when the printer
manages colors. I don't know why this should be but that's what it
seems to be. Apparently Epson's larger printers have been using this
for a while and it is now moving to smaller models.

http://factor.bg/epson/SP9900/Maximu...r_fidelity.pdf is a blurb
which doesn't really tell you much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egLCg3GiXIE is also a blurb but gives
more information.

Whatever the explanation I am banging my head on the wall waiting with
great impatience for a version of the driver which incorporates the
profile for Archival Matte paper.


sounds a little like color rendering dictionaries (CRD) with Adobe
postscript level 2

does the printer driver pull an input profile to use with the output LUT
or does it just assume something like sRGB?

--
Dale
http://www.dalekelly.org

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 13:30:37 -0400, Dale wrote:

On 10/16/2015 11:04 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have previously written that the instructions for Epson Sure Color
P-800 recommend that with Photoshoop CS3 or later, All LR and also PS
Elements 6 or later - the printer should manage colours. I have
confirmed that with CC LR having the printer manage colors gives a
vastly superior result when using Epson Premium Glossy paper. I may
now have discovered why this should be.

Epson in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology have
taken color management to new levels. The problem appears to be that
while with 8 colors there are a zillion ways to blend them to achieve
a particular color there is only one best way. Apparently the
mathematics are complicated but are vastly simplified by use of a
massive Look Up Table (LUT). Presumably all this is built into the
driver.

Down loading the driver results in about a dozen ICC paper profiles
being installed in Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color but these can
only be used with LR and the like. They cannot be loaded into the
driver which reports that they are incompatible (or some such).

My suspicion is that the LUT is available only when the printer
manages colors. I don't know why this should be but that's what it
seems to be. Apparently Epson's larger printers have been using this
for a while and it is now moving to smaller models.

http://factor.bg/epson/SP9900/Maximu...r_fidelity.pdf is a blurb
which doesn't really tell you much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egLCg3GiXIE is also a blurb but gives
more information.

Whatever the explanation I am banging my head on the wall waiting with
great impatience for a version of the driver which incorporates the
profile for Archival Matte paper.


sounds a little like color rendering dictionaries (CRD) with Adobe
postscript level 2

does the printer driver pull an input profile to use with the output LUT
or does it just assume something like sRGB?

Epson asks that you use sRGB in the image. You can use AdobeRGB but
the driver will convert it to sRGB. If the video is anything to go by,
the driver will then inflate parts of the sRGB gamut to fit the the
printer's gamut. If that is correct the printer's gamut exceeds sRGB.
I would to check on that before really believing it.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 18/10/2015 09:42, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 13:30:37 -0400, Dale wrote:

On 10/16/2015 11:04 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have previously written that the instructions for Epson Sure Color
P-800 recommend that with Photoshoop CS3 or later, All LR and also PS
Elements 6 or later - the printer should manage colours. I have
confirmed that with CC LR having the printer manage colors gives a
vastly superior result when using Epson Premium Glossy paper. I may
now have discovered why this should be.

Epson in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology have
taken color management to new levels. The problem appears to be that
while with 8 colors there are a zillion ways to blend them to achieve
a particular color there is only one best way. Apparently the
mathematics are complicated but are vastly simplified by use of a
massive Look Up Table (LUT). Presumably all this is built into the
driver.

Down loading the driver results in about a dozen ICC paper profiles
being installed in Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color but these can
only be used with LR and the like. They cannot be loaded into the
driver which reports that they are incompatible (or some such).

My suspicion is that the LUT is available only when the printer
manages colors. I don't know why this should be but that's what it
seems to be. Apparently Epson's larger printers have been using this
for a while and it is now moving to smaller models.

http://factor.bg/epson/SP9900/Maximu...r_fidelity.pdf is a blurb
which doesn't really tell you much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egLCg3GiXIE is also a blurb but gives
more information.

Whatever the explanation I am banging my head on the wall waiting with
great impatience for a version of the driver which incorporates the
profile for Archival Matte paper.


sounds a little like color rendering dictionaries (CRD) with Adobe
postscript level 2

does the printer driver pull an input profile to use with the output LUT
or does it just assume something like sRGB?

Epson asks that you use sRGB in the image. You can use AdobeRGB but
the driver will convert it to sRGB. If the video is anything to go by,
the driver will then inflate parts of the sRGB gamut to fit the the
printer's gamut. If that is correct the printer's gamut exceeds sRGB.
I would to check on that before really believing it.

They (Epson printers) will exceed sRGB, but only for "peaks" in the
spectrum corresponding with the primary colours for the inks.
With subtractive colour, then the intermediate colours fall below sRGB.
You can check that yourself - download an 8 bit sRGB test image in PNG
format which displays the entire sRGB spectrum, then turn on "gamut
warning" in photoshop with selected profiles for various papers. Load a
matte paper profile, and it's surprising how much is out of gamut.
From my experience trying to print "real photos" which are heavily
saturated and aRGB, by the time they're adjusted back to being within
gamut across the entire frame, may as well have just stuck with sRGB
unless you want to selectively adjust areas of the photo so that vibrant
sRGB colours are retained.

On Sun, 18 Oct 2015 11:26:59 +1300, Me wrote:

On 18/10/2015 09:42, Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 13:30:37 -0400, Dale wrote:

On 10/16/2015 11:04 PM, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have previously written that the instructions for Epson Sure Color
P-800 recommend that with Photoshoop CS3 or later, All LR and also PS
Elements 6 or later - the printer should manage colours. I have
confirmed that with CC LR having the printer manage colors gives a
vastly superior result when using Epson Premium Glossy paper. I may
now have discovered why this should be.

Epson in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology have
taken color management to new levels. The problem appears to be that
while with 8 colors there are a zillion ways to blend them to achieve
a particular color there is only one best way. Apparently the
mathematics are complicated but are vastly simplified by use of a
massive Look Up Table (LUT). Presumably all this is built into the
driver.

Down loading the driver results in about a dozen ICC paper profiles
being installed in Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color but these can
only be used with LR and the like. They cannot be loaded into the
driver which reports that they are incompatible (or some such).

My suspicion is that the LUT is available only when the printer
manages colors. I don't know why this should be but that's what it
seems to be. Apparently Epson's larger printers have been using this
for a while and it is now moving to smaller models.

http://factor.bg/epson/SP9900/Maximu...r_fidelity.pdf is a blurb
which doesn't really tell you much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egLCg3GiXIE is also a blurb but gives
more information.

Whatever the explanation I am banging my head on the wall waiting with
great impatience for a version of the driver which incorporates the
profile for Archival Matte paper.


sounds a little like color rendering dictionaries (CRD) with Adobe
postscript level 2

does the printer driver pull an input profile to use with the output LUT
or does it just assume something like sRGB?

Epson asks that you use sRGB in the image. You can use AdobeRGB but
the driver will convert it to sRGB. If the video is anything to go by,
the driver will then inflate parts of the sRGB gamut to fit the the
printer's gamut. If that is correct the printer's gamut exceeds sRGB.
I would to check on that before really believing it.

They (Epson printers) will exceed sRGB, but only for "peaks" in the
spectrum corresponding with the primary colours for the inks.
With subtractive colour, then the intermediate colours fall below sRGB.
You can check that yourself - download an 8 bit sRGB test image in PNG
format which displays the entire sRGB spectrum, then turn on "gamut
warning" in photoshop with selected profiles for various papers. Load a
matte paper profile, and it's surprising how much is out of gamut.
From my experience trying to print "real photos" which are heavily
saturated and aRGB, by the time they're adjusted back to being within
gamut across the entire frame, may as well have just stuck with sRGB
unless you want to selectively adjust areas of the photo so that vibrant
sRGB colours are retained.

If I have understood your last sentence correctly, this is what the
Epson driver does. It converts the sRGB image to the printer-paper
profile and even alows you to nominate your 'intent' for the process.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 17/10/2015 16:04, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have previously written that the instructions for Epson Sure Color
P-800 recommend that with Photoshoop CS3 or later, All LR and also PS
Elements 6 or later - the printer should manage colours. I have
confirmed that with CC LR having the printer manage colors gives a
vastly superior result when using Epson Premium Glossy paper. I may
now have discovered why this should be.

Epson in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology have
taken color management to new levels. The problem appears to be that
while with 8 colors there are a zillion ways to blend them to achieve
a particular color there is only one best way. Apparently the
mathematics are complicated but are vastly simplified by use of a
massive Look Up Table (LUT). Presumably all this is built into the
driver.

Down loading the driver results in about a dozen ICC paper profiles
being installed in Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color but these can
only be used with LR and the like. They cannot be loaded into the
driver which reports that they are incompatible (or some such).

My suspicion is that the LUT is available only when the printer
manages colors. I don't know why this should be but that's what it
seems to be. Apparently Epson's larger printers have been using this
for a while and it is now moving to smaller models.

http://factor.bg/epson/SP9900/Maximu...r_fidelity.pdf is a blurb
which doesn't really tell you much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egLCg3GiXIE is also a blurb but gives
more information.

Whatever the explanation I am banging my head on the wall waiting with
great impatience for a version of the driver which incorporates the
profile for Archival Matte paper.

I suspect that your observation may be the result of a mistake somewhere.

The photo you posted the other day of flower in a vase, I was going to
comment on. I didn't see any issue with it viewed on screen, and it was
also totally within gamut (R3880) on gloss/pearl papers. I viewed the
photo on a large TV with laptop connected, yet that had no problem
displaying the colours without any obvious posterisation or other
issues. I didn't look on my calibrated system.
I'm confident it would print fine using "printer manages colour" and
default settings for Epson paper stock.
But a problem exists if using non Epson paper... Probably not too bad
in some cases though, as for example, I've printed using "printer
manages colour" with Ilford papers and Epson settings for similar
papers, and the result is probably close enough for most people.
However on matte papers, it's a different story, some of the reds were
definitely out of gamut. Sure - you could try it out and see, but I'll
stick with soft-proofing and adjustment and a colour managed print
process to ensure that I get WYSIWYG screenrint matches - rather than
a lottery.
I guess with Epson matte/fine art papers, those adjustments to avoid out
of gamut and to tweak colour could be used by editing while
soft-proofing, then send to the printer and allow the printer to manage
colour. With non-epson papers or custom profiles - then no, it won't work.

On 2015-10-17 22:16:47 +0000, Me said:

On 17/10/2015 16:04, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have previously written that the instructions for Epson Sure Color
P-800 recommend that with Photoshoop CS3 or later, All LR and also PS
Elements 6 or later - the printer should manage colours. I have
confirmed that with CC LR having the printer manage colors gives a
vastly superior result when using Epson Premium Glossy paper. I may
now have discovered why this should be.

Epson in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology have
taken color management to new levels. The problem appears to be that
while with 8 colors there are a zillion ways to blend them to achieve
a particular color there is only one best way. Apparently the
mathematics are complicated but are vastly simplified by use of a
massive Look Up Table (LUT). Presumably all this is built into the
driver.

Down loading the driver results in about a dozen ICC paper profiles
being installed in Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color but these can
only be used with LR and the like. They cannot be loaded into the
driver which reports that they are incompatible (or some such).

My suspicion is that the LUT is available only when the printer
manages colors. I don't know why this should be but that's what it
seems to be. Apparently Epson's larger printers have been using this
for a while and it is now moving to smaller models.

http://factor.bg/epson/SP9900/Maximu...r_fidelity.pdf is a blurb
which doesn't really tell you much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egLCg3GiXIE is also a blurb but gives
more information.

Whatever the explanation I am banging my head on the wall waiting with
great impatience for a version of the driver which incorporates the
profile for Archival Matte paper.

I suspect that your observation may be the result of a mistake somewhere.

The photo you posted the other day of flower in a vase, I was going to
comment on. I didn't see any issue with it viewed on screen, and it
was also totally within gamut (R3880) on gloss/pearl papers. I viewed
the photo on a large TV with laptop connected, yet that had no problem
displaying the colours without any obvious posterisation or other
issues. I didn't look on my calibrated system.
I'm confident it would print fine using "printer manages colour" and
default settings for Epson paper stock.
But a problem exists if using non Epson paper... Probably not too bad
in some cases though, as for example, I've printed using "printer
manages colour" with Ilford papers and Epson settings for similar
papers, and the result is probably close enough for most people.
However on matte papers, it's a different story, some of the reds were
definitely out of gamut. Sure - you could try it out and see, but I'll
stick with soft-proofing and adjustment and a colour managed print
process to ensure that I get WYSIWYG screenrint matches - rather than
a lottery.
I guess with Epson matte/fine art papers, those adjustments to avoid
out of gamut and to tweak colour could be used by editing while
soft-proofing, then send to the printer and allow the printer to manage
colour. With non-epson papers or custom profiles - then no, it won't
work.

Ilford has icc profiles for their papers and most printers.
http://www.ilford.com/printer-profile-list

--
Regards,

Savageduck

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 16:24:08 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2015-10-17 22:16:47 +0000, Me said:

On 17/10/2015 16:04, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have previously written that the instructions for Epson Sure Color
P-800 recommend that with Photoshoop CS3 or later, All LR and also PS
Elements 6 or later - the printer should manage colours. I have
confirmed that with CC LR having the printer manage colors gives a
vastly superior result when using Epson Premium Glossy paper. I may
now have discovered why this should be.

Epson in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology have
taken color management to new levels. The problem appears to be that
while with 8 colors there are a zillion ways to blend them to achieve
a particular color there is only one best way. Apparently the
mathematics are complicated but are vastly simplified by use of a
massive Look Up Table (LUT). Presumably all this is built into the
driver.

Down loading the driver results in about a dozen ICC paper profiles
being installed in Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color but these can
only be used with LR and the like. They cannot be loaded into the
driver which reports that they are incompatible (or some such).

My suspicion is that the LUT is available only when the printer
manages colors. I don't know why this should be but that's what it
seems to be. Apparently Epson's larger printers have been using this
for a while and it is now moving to smaller models.

http://factor.bg/epson/SP9900/Maximu...r_fidelity.pdf is a blurb
which doesn't really tell you much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egLCg3GiXIE is also a blurb but gives
more information.

Whatever the explanation I am banging my head on the wall waiting with
great impatience for a version of the driver which incorporates the
profile for Archival Matte paper.

I suspect that your observation may be the result of a mistake somewhere.

The photo you posted the other day of flower in a vase, I was going to
comment on. I didn't see any issue with it viewed on screen, and it
was also totally within gamut (R3880) on gloss/pearl papers. I viewed
the photo on a large TV with laptop connected, yet that had no problem
displaying the colours without any obvious posterisation or other
issues. I didn't look on my calibrated system.
I'm confident it would print fine using "printer manages colour" and
default settings for Epson paper stock.
But a problem exists if using non Epson paper... Probably not too bad
in some cases though, as for example, I've printed using "printer
manages colour" with Ilford papers and Epson settings for similar
papers, and the result is probably close enough for most people.
However on matte papers, it's a different story, some of the reds were
definitely out of gamut. Sure - you could try it out and see, but I'll
stick with soft-proofing and adjustment and a colour managed print
process to ensure that I get WYSIWYG screenrint matches - rather than
a lottery.
I guess with Epson matte/fine art papers, those adjustments to avoid
out of gamut and to tweak colour could be used by editing while
soft-proofing, then send to the printer and allow the printer to manage
colour. With non-epson papers or custom profiles - then no, it won't
work.

Ilford has icc profiles for their papers and most printers.
http://www.ilford.com/printer-profile-list

I would be suprised if they have one for the Epson LUT technology. I
suspect Epson may be reluctant to let others use it.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 16:24:08 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2015-10-17 22:16:47 +0000, Me said:

On 17/10/2015 16:04, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have previously written that the instructions for Epson Sure Color
P-800 recommend that with Photoshoop CS3 or later, All LR and also PS
Elements 6 or later - the printer should manage colours. I have
confirmed that with CC LR having the printer manage colors gives a
vastly superior result when using Epson Premium Glossy paper. I may
now have discovered why this should be.

Epson in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology have
taken color management to new levels. The problem appears to be that
while with 8 colors there are a zillion ways to blend them to achieve
a particular color there is only one best way. Apparently the
mathematics are complicated but are vastly simplified by use of a
massive Look Up Table (LUT). Presumably all this is built into the
driver.

Down loading the driver results in about a dozen ICC paper profiles
being installed in Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color but these can
only be used with LR and the like. They cannot be loaded into the
driver which reports that they are incompatible (or some such).

My suspicion is that the LUT is available only when the printer
manages colors. I don't know why this should be but that's what it
seems to be. Apparently Epson's larger printers have been using this
for a while and it is now moving to smaller models.

http://factor.bg/epson/SP9900/Maximu...r_fidelity.pdf is a blurb
which doesn't really tell you much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egLCg3GiXIE is also a blurb but gives
more information.

Whatever the explanation I am banging my head on the wall waiting with
great impatience for a version of the driver which incorporates the
profile for Archival Matte paper.

I suspect that your observation may be the result of a mistake somewhere.

The photo you posted the other day of flower in a vase, I was going to
comment on. I didn't see any issue with it viewed on screen, and it
was also totally within gamut (R3880) on gloss/pearl papers. I viewed
the photo on a large TV with laptop connected, yet that had no problem
displaying the colours without any obvious posterisation or other
issues. I didn't look on my calibrated system.
I'm confident it would print fine using "printer manages colour" and
default settings for Epson paper stock.
But a problem exists if using non Epson paper... Probably not too bad
in some cases though, as for example, I've printed using "printer
manages colour" with Ilford papers and Epson settings for similar
papers, and the result is probably close enough for most people.
However on matte papers, it's a different story, some of the reds were
definitely out of gamut. Sure - you could try it out and see, but I'll
stick with soft-proofing and adjustment and a colour managed print
process to ensure that I get WYSIWYG screenrint matches - rather than
a lottery.
I guess with Epson matte/fine art papers, those adjustments to avoid
out of gamut and to tweak colour could be used by editing while
soft-proofing, then send to the printer and allow the printer to manage
colour. With non-epson papers or custom profiles - then no, it won't
work.

Ilford has icc profiles for their papers and most printers.
http://www.ilford.com/printer-profile-list

I would be suprised if they have one for the Epson LUT technology. I
suspect Epson may be reluctant to let others use it.

It's not specific to the Epson technology, it fits the
ICC standard.

Waiting for Epson to supply a larger variety of profiles
is never likely to be productive! They have not done so
for many years, and are unlikely to change any time
soon. This is not an issue that just surfaced recently
or only for the printers you are looking at.

Perhaps the reason is obvious too, though I personally
don't think this should ever apply to consumer printer,
and don't even much like it for commercial photo
printers either! But the fact is that buying a Color
Monki and making your own custom profiles is a vastly
better solution. At the commercial level that is
extended to the point that a new batch of ink or a new
batch of paper (never mind just a new type or brand) is
cause to generate a new ICC profile. Note that some of
the commercial printers even come with spectrograph
hardware pre-installed.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 18:31:37 -0800, (Floyd L.
Davidson) wrote:

Eric Stevens wrote:
On Sat, 17 Oct 2015 16:24:08 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2015-10-17 22:16:47 +0000, Me said:

On 17/10/2015 16:04, Eric Stevens wrote:
I have previously written that the instructions for Epson Sure Color
P-800 recommend that with Photoshoop CS3 or later, All LR and also PS
Elements 6 or later - the printer should manage colours. I have
confirmed that with CC LR having the printer manage colors gives a
vastly superior result when using Epson Premium Glossy paper. I may
now have discovered why this should be.

Epson in conjunction with the Rochester Institute of Technology have
taken color management to new levels. The problem appears to be that
while with 8 colors there are a zillion ways to blend them to achieve
a particular color there is only one best way. Apparently the
mathematics are complicated but are vastly simplified by use of a
massive Look Up Table (LUT). Presumably all this is built into the
driver.

Down loading the driver results in about a dozen ICC paper profiles
being installed in Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color but these can
only be used with LR and the like. They cannot be loaded into the
driver which reports that they are incompatible (or some such).

My suspicion is that the LUT is available only when the printer
manages colors. I don't know why this should be but that's what it
seems to be. Apparently Epson's larger printers have been using this
for a while and it is now moving to smaller models.

http://factor.bg/epson/SP9900/Maximu...r_fidelity.pdf is a blurb
which doesn't really tell you much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egLCg3GiXIE is also a blurb but gives
more information.

Whatever the explanation I am banging my head on the wall waiting with
great impatience for a version of the driver which incorporates the
profile for Archival Matte paper.

I suspect that your observation may be the result of a mistake somewhere.

The photo you posted the other day of flower in a vase, I was going to
comment on. I didn't see any issue with it viewed on screen, and it
was also totally within gamut (R3880) on gloss/pearl papers. I viewed
the photo on a large TV with laptop connected, yet that had no problem
displaying the colours without any obvious posterisation or other
issues. I didn't look on my calibrated system.
I'm confident it would print fine using "printer manages colour" and
default settings for Epson paper stock.
But a problem exists if using non Epson paper... Probably not too bad
in some cases though, as for example, I've printed using "printer
manages colour" with Ilford papers and Epson settings for similar
papers, and the result is probably close enough for most people.
However on matte papers, it's a different story, some of the reds were
definitely out of gamut. Sure - you could try it out and see, but I'll
stick with soft-proofing and adjustment and a colour managed print
process to ensure that I get WYSIWYG screenrint matches - rather than
a lottery.
I guess with Epson matte/fine art papers, those adjustments to avoid
out of gamut and to tweak colour could be used by editing while
soft-proofing, then send to the printer and allow the printer to manage
colour. With non-epson papers or custom profiles - then no, it won't
work.

Ilford has icc profiles for their papers and most printers.
http://www.ilford.com/printer-profile-list

I would be suprised if they have one for the Epson LUT technology. I
suspect Epson may be reluctant to let others use it.

It's not specific to the Epson technology, it fits the
ICC standard.

Waiting for Epson to supply a larger variety of profiles
is never likely to be productive! They have not done so
for many years, and are unlikely to change any time
soon. This is not an issue that just surfaced recently
or only for the printers you are looking at.

Perhaps the reason is obvious too, though I personally
don't think this should ever apply to consumer printer,
and don't even much like it for commercial photo
printers either! But the fact is that buying a Color
Monki and making your own custom profiles is a vastly
better solution. At the commercial level that is
extended to the point that a new batch of ink or a new
batch of paper (never mind just a new type or brand) is
cause to generate a new ICC profile. Note that some of
the commercial printers even come with spectrograph
hardware pre-installed.

Yes, all that's true. The problem is that if you do that all you would
produce is but another external profile which cannot be loaded into
the driver. You then do not have access to 'Printer Manages Color' or,
presumably, the LUT and associated software. You will see why I do not
want that from the two scanned images to the right of:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...%20compare.jpg

Then there is the matter of getting right:
Color Density
Drying Time per Pass
Paper Feed Adjustment
Paper Thickness
Print Quality Level
Print Quality
Speed
Finest Detail On/Off
Edge Smoothing On/Off
Colour Adjustment
Gamma
Setting

All of this comes in with the Epson profile. Otherwise you have to
work it out and set it yourself.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens