Exact prints size setting in Photoshop (and HiTi730 color-re

[Alexz]

I'm relatively new owner of HiTi730 machine. So far 'm quite impressed with it, however have already experienced issues.
Forst of all, there standard ICC profile that comes with its driver doesn't seem to be accurate enough. I experience quite noticeable yellowish cast over the printed image which doesn't appear while Soft Proofing in Photoshop with this profile. Proofing with Preceptial intent reveals a litle bit of this case comparative to relative Colorimetric, but still far from its real strengh on-paper. My monitor is hardware calibrated, so this is not the reason.
I've tried some custom-made profile kindly offered by other 730 user - helped a little bit (reveals a bit more of that yellow cast in Soft Proof, but still not reliable).

I guess I have no way out but to calibrate (ICC profile) my particular printer to obtain accurate profile for my particular device. Besides, what is still unclear for me is how exactly 730's driver color manages the images on tehir way to the printer (I suspect it will alwasy convert color space into printer's one, no option to avoid that). This understanding is mandatory in order to gain full control over color settings in printing dialog.

The second issue is that I still cannot obtain exact sizing of the image on the paper.
What I know is that its actual resolution is 301 dpi. So, bearing that in mind, for 4x6 prints I just do: 4x301 x 6x301 whichi yealds: 1204x1806 pixels image to cover exactly the 4x6 print area.
So what I do is managing the final image to be this exactly size (1204x1806 pixels) and send to print by Print with Preview of Photoshop CS. In this dialog box I set the option for iameg to cover teh entire printable area and always get few mm of image out of 4x6 picture area.
I even measured manually the actual printing area (between perforation) of 4x6 which yielded slighly different proportions (by small margin) and calculated for fit these - didn't help, still got the image running slightly over the 4x6 image area.
Can you please enlight me how do you prepare image size to manage it to be printed covering exactly the image area of given paper ? I print mostly from Photoshop.

regards, Alex

[ERivera]

Alexz: Been there...done that on both fronts. I'm using my HiTi730 with a MAC OS x system annd had the same problems. I was able to take care of the yelloish cast on my printouts by creating a Profile in my Page set-up box. It's worked OK (After 20 Printouts). However - I'm About to invest in a Monitor calibration system in order to calibrate both my monitor and the HiTi.

Regarding the Print size problem - I use Photoshop 7 and elements. Have not had a problem re-sizing my images for printing. i.e. for a 5X7, I have set an image profile size to 5.2 X 7.2. This gives me the image size that I want. Works great!

[slipe]

In Photoshop just select the crop tool and put the dimensions you want in the boxes at the top. Even if you don't end up cropping anything from the image and just crop around the entire image you will end up with the proper print dimensions being sent to the printer.

If you have more than the required resolution the printer driver usually will do at least as good a job of the downsample required as doing it in Photoshop. If you don't put anything in the resolution crop box it will send all of the pixels to the printer. You can check what resolution you ended up with by going Image>Image size. If it is over your required PPI I would just leave it alone.

You could put both the dimensions and your 301 PPI in the crop boxes and Photoshop will resample to 301 PPI.

[Alexz]

Thanks ERivera, Slipe.
ERivera:
What do you mean by Page set-up box ? I don't remember any possibility to profile teh printer within the software alone.

My monitor is calibrated by Monaco Sensor, so this isn't something an issue at all. I think I will invest into one of printer's profiling services available online to create custom profile specifically for my printer, apparently this is the only solution for the problem.

BTW, you cannot calibrate your printer by the monitor calibration device, you need reflective printer target colorimeter specifically for that (and these cost a lot).

As about resizing, the problem isn't covered there. I always prepare the files to exact resolution (301 dpi) for printout according to teh size (4x6, 5x7 or 6x8 ).
Moreover, I contacted Hi-Ti (their excellent online support) - they finally acknowledged that the issue of slight overpriting on the perforated part is a deliberate intention of the driver. The driver will always stretch the file a bit just to cover paper drive mechanical precision tolerances (which are about 1- 1.5mm according to HiTi).

[rshld61]

Alexz wrote:

My monitor is calibrated by Monaco Sensor, so this isn't something an issue at all. I think I will invest into one of printer's profiling services available online to create custom profile specifically for my printer, apparently this is the only solution for the problem.

Alexz -

Did you ever end up purchasing a custom ICC profile for your 730PS, and if so are you satisfied with the results when printing from Photoshop? I recently purchased a 730PS myself and I'm having exactly the same issue - a distinct yellowish color cast on all photos printed from Photoshop. I have a Canon EOS 10D and shoot mostly RAW images, especially when shooting in ambient lighting situations like on-stage events. I use Photoshop CS for my RAW conversion and post processing, and the resulting prints on my Epson 2200 printer using the standard Epson ICC profile are simply breathtaking. However, the same images printed on the 730PS at 5x7 all have that ugly yellow cast to some degree no matter what I try.

I've made prints on the 730PS directly from the SD memory card of my wife's 3MP Canon Digital Elph - they look great and don't have a hint of the dreaded yellow cast!

I've founda service (Dry Creek Photo) that will create a custom ICC profile for $50. I've already printed the small format color targets (4 of them) and plan to mail them this week. Dry Creek Photo offers to re-profile or refund your money if you're not satisfied with the results - seems like a win-win proposition.

Any advise you can provide on your experience addressing the Photoshop printing issue with the 730PS would be greatly appreciated!

[Terrill]

Whenb you boys get this worked out, let us know. I think we all have the same problem.

[rshld61]

Great news folks! The custom profile I ordered from Dry Creek Photo (http://www.drycreekphoto.com) works like a champ! I received the profile via email within a week of mailing my target photos, and installation was a breeze. No more yellow color cast on processed raw images from my Canon 10D when I print from Photoshop CS. Best $50 I've spent on software in quite a while! Definitely recommended!

[GeeK]

Guys,

Do check out the download section from Hi-Ti. They added a native ICC profile for the 730 for Win XP and it works like a charm.

Also, I've created some templates to add borders (about 2.5 mm or about 0.1 inch) for 5R and 6R printouts (both landscape and portrait), though it might be calibrated for my own printer only. If anyone is interested, please do e-mail me at [email protected]


rgds,
GeeK