HP 9180 Initial Trials

To fine tune my printer settings in Aperture, I decided to run a few trials. Even with a completely calibrated system, the prints never quite match the monitor. But I'm getting awfully close...

I'll try to keep these tests simple. Since this printer is the geared to towards the prosumer, I theoretically shouldn't need to get buried with the all the possible settings so as to loose the fun of print making. Before picking up the printer, I would order my prints at my local Ritz. The results were ok but maybe a touch too dark. But making my own prints almost makes me feel like an artist - a real print maker. If only the printer emitted the appropriate chemicals typical in a darkroom.

For the test, I chose this photo. My little friend Jack is my favorite model, he just goes on about his business letting me shoot away with no complaints or dirty looks. The image was shot in JPG format & the Adobe RGB 1998 color space. I'm using HP Advanced Gloss Paper and my monitor was calibrated with a Huey device. Here are the scenarios:

1) For whatever reason I had dialed up the gamma in Aperture's print dialog to 1.30. With the gamma at 1.3, the appropriate color profile selected for the paper, and black point compensation on, I noticed the prints fair but seemed a little washed out, kind like a sun glare coating the entire image. I also noticed a bit of color shifting in greens (trees) and blues (sky) when I proofed the image on screen.

2) I dialed back the gamma to 1.10. The difference was surprising. The washed out look was gone, almost like I made a saturation adjustment. The entire print was much richer and color accurate.

3) Just to be daring, I set the gamma to 1.0 for maybe a slightly better print. Things got just a touch richer. Deciding between 1.0 and 1.10 was tough. For this image, 1.0 might be the winner. But I went back to my Aperture preset and split the difference to 1.05. The color shifts seemed to correct themselves. Before this tweak I was trying to boost the saturation for the colors that faded under the 1.3 setting. But with a dialed down gamma things looked fine.

4) As a final test, I tried using the system managed settings in Aperture. As I understand it, this setting bypasses the color profiles and is supposed to serve as a very entry level setting (or if no profile is available). Well it turns out all this color management stuff isn't a bunch of marketing fluff. The result with a system managed setting gave me a very dark and muddy print - yuck. I'm sticking to the profiles when available! Now if only I'd have run this test prior to wasting two 8.5 x 11 sheets. Oddly though, the on screen proof looked pretty good, a little more vivid perhaps. But the print was terrible - way too dark.

The next couple prints run with 1.05 gamma and proper paper profile were great! The only problem I noticed was that somehow the image is getting cropped. I'm not sure if it's Aperture or the HP software. My shots typically fill the frame, so some important edges might be clipped. I'll have to try a print through CS3 - that might help narrow down the problem.