Wednesday, March 21, 2012

New Printer, New Palladium Curves

My Epson Stylus Pro 4000 has given up the ghost and I've replaced it with an Epson 4900. This is one of those big moments in the inventory of one's equipment. The 4000 was remarkably good and consistent over several years. During the past year I found I was using more and more ink to unclog the nozzles on its print head. Finally I had to turn to the Epson repair facility in Duarte. They finally determined that the print head needed to be replaced but that no part was available. The wait for a printer would be indeterminate.

On the other hand, Epson was having a yearly sale on its's 17" printers, so this was a good time to buy. The printer was shipped from the midwest and arrived at my door about a week ago. It prints color wonderfully, right from the beginning, but palladium work involves preparing a "curve" that optimizes the dynamic range of this medium. The curves from my 4000 could not be read directly by my 4900. For one thing, the 4000 uses 8 inks, but the 4900, 10 (actually 11 but that is a longer story). So I have been starting from scratch. It's a good but humbling exercise. In the next few postings, I'll highlight the process.