Hi, I’m building a QuadToneRip profile for Entrada Rag Natural Coldpress on an Epson SCP900, using the MK ink. I’m building the profile using a scanner, and don’t have a reliable densitometer available (but do have a calibrated step-wedge). Just so I’m making sure I’m not leaving too much on the table, what might I get for a dMax with the P900 and the Coldpress paper? Just wanting to cross check the quality of this part of the profile. Thanks!!

Hank,
At this point we don't calculate dMax for our papers. We instead use the maximum black value from the profile (the darkest black L* value). For Entrada Natural Coldpress on the P900 our max black value is L* 13-14 using M0/M2 measurement. Hopefully your software will give you this value for the profile you created.

Yes, that's super helpful. Best I've been able to get to is L* 22/23, using 100% ink load on the MK channel. I'm using 1440 dpi setting, might try 2880 dpi setting in QTR (but I don't expect much change from this). The reflective luminosity really flattens out after about 60-65% ink load on MK, with a L* of around 25/26. Maybe it's my measurement method....calibrated scanner. Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

When creating a profile there really isn't a substitute for a spectrophotometer. You could contact one of our custom ICC profile providers and see if they can scan your patches and send a data set to be imported into QTR:

http://chromix.com/colorvalet/

https://www.freestylephoto.com/15076-Freestyle-Custom-Printer-Profile-(Made-to-Order)

Hi, I got my hands on a i1Pro 1 Rev E spectrophotometer. I have made sure to use the white tile for calibration and have checked the output of the spectrophotometer against a Stouffer R2110C step wedge. Using QTR at 100% MK inkload (Epson P900) on Entrada Coldpress, I am getting an L* of 22/23 (which also makes me a little happy about my scanner calibration...but that's not the point here :-) ). I'm using ArgyllCMS 3.1. You reported you could get to an L* of 13/14 on this paper, I'm assuming with these Epson inks. Any tricks/recommendations on how you get to there?

I would recommend reducing your ink load and measuring at different intervals (maybe 5% steps to start?) If 100% is over-inking the sheet your L* value will increase above the minimum. I don't have experience with QTR- is there a way to see what the MK % is in a default media setting, such as Velvet Fine Art?

Wanted to close this, if nothing else for the next person. I figured out the issue last night, and its a bit embarrassing. I was cutting sheets from a roll. And printing on the wrong side of the paper. As soon as I figured that out all fell into place. Thank you for the help on this.

Good to hear there was a straight forward answer.

The easiest way to double-check which side of a paper is the print side is to use a post-it note. It will stick like velcro to the print side, and release easily from the non-print side.