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Kinda easy to double profile on HP B9180
sanaka
Registered Users Posts: 108 Major grins
I had a bear of a time matching print output on my HP B9180 with PS soft proof today. So this is a meandering stream-of-conciousness post for anyone who: may have had trouble with their B9180, is just learning to use theirs, or is thinking of getting one.
As a qualifier to the below I should say: I LOVE my B9180. I ran an Epson 1280 for years, with the twitchy madness 3rd party pigment ink external bottles with the little tubes to the print heads. :bash The B9180 solves all the 1280's problems completely. It's a no-muss-no-fuss workhorse whose output is beautiful and archival (on glossy too).
Bottom line, my print problem today was a personal brain problem. I was commiting the dreaded double profile error.
The reason I divert some of the blame from myself has to do with the otherwise mostly nifty 'Photosmart Pro Print' plugin that comes with this printer. This is HP's noble attempt to simplify color management in the workflow to print. This lets you specify, in one window !, the paper size and type, bleed, scaling, and most importantly which paper profile you want, and forces all these in PS and the printer driver, obviating the usual need to hunt them all down in various PS and printer driver windows to accomplish the same thing. So, pretty nifty. Except... it's a bit glitchy. It doesn't always work just right, so sometimes you have to go back to setting everything the old way.
The problem, for me, maybe just because I'm a lazy minded noob, is that I had gotten pretty lackadaisical about knowing, cognizing in detail, just what is up w/ my settings, since HP has made it easy for me most of the time. When I had to bust out my old skills and find and set all the settings myself in all their various locations, I overlooked one or two, including (you've probably guessed) telling the printer driver to shut up and let PS apply the printer profile by itself. So the driver applied one in addition, and, just like magic, my prints totally sucked
So I think the novelty of HP's plugin has pretty much worn off for me. If at some point they make it undefeatably consistent and rock-solid, great. I mean, it is lame that that something that is essentially not complicated requires all this twitchy, rote search and click to get right. But if you've cut your teeth on it in PS, I feel it's better to stick with that and stay sharp on it. It is quite consistent and solid in its irritating way. The plugin ends up just being another set of stuff to remember.
Yup, that's about all I wanted to say!
Peace,
Sanaka
As a qualifier to the below I should say: I LOVE my B9180. I ran an Epson 1280 for years, with the twitchy madness 3rd party pigment ink external bottles with the little tubes to the print heads. :bash The B9180 solves all the 1280's problems completely. It's a no-muss-no-fuss workhorse whose output is beautiful and archival (on glossy too).
Bottom line, my print problem today was a personal brain problem. I was commiting the dreaded double profile error.
The reason I divert some of the blame from myself has to do with the otherwise mostly nifty 'Photosmart Pro Print' plugin that comes with this printer. This is HP's noble attempt to simplify color management in the workflow to print. This lets you specify, in one window !, the paper size and type, bleed, scaling, and most importantly which paper profile you want, and forces all these in PS and the printer driver, obviating the usual need to hunt them all down in various PS and printer driver windows to accomplish the same thing. So, pretty nifty. Except... it's a bit glitchy. It doesn't always work just right, so sometimes you have to go back to setting everything the old way.
The problem, for me, maybe just because I'm a lazy minded noob, is that I had gotten pretty lackadaisical about knowing, cognizing in detail, just what is up w/ my settings, since HP has made it easy for me most of the time. When I had to bust out my old skills and find and set all the settings myself in all their various locations, I overlooked one or two, including (you've probably guessed) telling the printer driver to shut up and let PS apply the printer profile by itself. So the driver applied one in addition, and, just like magic, my prints totally sucked
So I think the novelty of HP's plugin has pretty much worn off for me. If at some point they make it undefeatably consistent and rock-solid, great. I mean, it is lame that that something that is essentially not complicated requires all this twitchy, rote search and click to get right. But if you've cut your teeth on it in PS, I feel it's better to stick with that and stay sharp on it. It is quite consistent and solid in its irritating way. The plugin ends up just being another set of stuff to remember.
Yup, that's about all I wanted to say!
Peace,
Sanaka
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SmugMug Technical Account Manager
Travel = good. Woo, shooting!
nickwphoto
I guess I'm not suprised. I'm still on CS2, but will probably upgrade soon. Another reason to ditch the plugin. Thanks!
Peace,
Sanaka
Kit lens for now: 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS