Something a Little Larger

I haven't made any large prints. I have yet to order 24" wide paper, although a 24" roll of EEF is supposed to be coming from Epson as part of their incentive/rebate package. I'm hanging some new work in a show later this week, and for that I want a wintry scene from Glacier National Park printed on a 13x19 (A3) sheet. This will be my largest print to date from the 7900.

I ran a nozzle check print, and found O and G almost completely clogged. There was also just a bit of a line missing from the C pattern. I've been tied up with other work, so the printer's been idle for several days. O and G are conveniently paired, so I ran a cleaning on that pair. When the cleaning finished, the printer's LCD reported "INK LOW", with flashing icons on the C and VM channels. C was at 16%, VM at 19%. The 7900 reported no clogs after the cleaning, and I could find none when I inspected the print with my loupe.

I set up as usual to print my photo on EEF, and ran in to a bit of confusion. Installed along with the rest of the Epson software was a profile for EEF, SP7900 9900 EFP PK 2880 v1.icc, dated 18 Dec 2008. This appears as Epson_9900_7900_Exhibition_Fiber_Paper_PK_v1 in Photoshop's list of profiles, and in the drop-down profile list in the printer driver. Also in the printer driver one can select a media type for "Exhibition Fiber Paper". But on the printer's LCD, there is no Exhibition Fiber Paper media type available.

I went to Epson's site and downloaded the profile there for EEF. This seems to be the same profile as the one I have, but the download includes a brief PDF listing printing settings and other details for the paper. That indicates a media type of "Premium Luster Photo Paper (260)" should be used. There IS a matching setting for this in the printer's list.

I made my print using Premium Luster Photo Paper (260) for the profile and media type. The prints looks good, but when I soft-proof in Photoshop I prefer the result using the EEF profile.

I've asked my friend Dean for comments and advice on this, since EEF is one of his preferred papers. Stay tuned.

  --Jay