November 29th, 2009
A good friend of mine asked if I can print some of my landscapes for her so I spent two days printing my Utah images. I almost forgot how “exciting” this process can be if you are unprepared. First, I had to update my Epson drivers to the latest version - but after all it went pretty smooth, I downloaded latest version 6.11 from Epson web site and installed it without any issue. After reboot, the printer was recognized and ready to go.
I usually print several proof images before I waste any large sheet of paper. Since I decided to print all my B&W on matte paper, I tried to use Epson UltraPremium Presentation Paper for proofs. So I loaded about 10 sheets of paper, tweaked Levels a little bit, added some unsharp mask, chose Advanced B&W in Epson dialog, added slight cold toning and pushed Print button…and the print was just horrible! No details, no contrast, nothing! Even my HP Officejet would produce better results!
Long story short, I spent about an hour trying to make a acceptable print but without any success. Then just out of desperation I decided to try one sheet of UltraSmooth Fine Art paper before I officially call it quit. I loaded it into manual rear feed of my 3800, set all default parameters, Black mode, 1440 ppi, Fine Detail, no High Speed - and…OMG, that was just perfect! Al details were there, blacks were deep and rich, whites where shiny and bright! What a great printer and paper! I printed several B&W and color prints and everything was literally “picture perfect” (I only had to increase contrast and saturation a bit for color images).
