So how about pooling our knowledge and test the true transfer rates to our connected Hard Disks?
Using Xbench is easy and FREE! Download it, Install it, and test the speed of your drives!
Take the poll…
OOPS! Xbench results MUST BE WHOLE NUMBERS – This is an issue with SurveyMonkey…
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I was recently questioned about my opinion that the Canon ix9000 and ix9500 were difficult to profile and might not produce as accurate colour as some of the Epson printers. This led me to thinking about why it was that my gut instinct felt that these Canon printers were not as capable. I have for some time questioned the lack of functionality of the Canon drivers, but if the printers are capable of good prints, why would the functionality of the driver matter?
I know for a fact that a couple of years ago I had significant problems profiling a Canon ix9500 for a client. It left me with a bitter memory, but didn’t stop me using or recommending the Canon printers to others since. Then, earlier this year, I recommended the ix9000 to someone and after buying it was told that they were never happy with the colour that it produced. I guess this just compounded my previous experiences.
So this week, I set out to look at the issue from a scientific point of view.
I chose to use an application called PatchTool by BabelColor.
I used the following method for checking the ability of each of the various printer/paper/ink combinations and here are the results.
Epson 7900 (12 colour printer) using Kodak Lustre-E semi gloss paper.
HP Z-3100 using HP Premium Plus Satin Photo Paper Q5491A (thanks to Rene van der Hulst who supplied the Z3100 data)
Canon IP9000mkII with Ilford Galerie Smooth Lustre Duo (Data provided by Ilford UK website)
Canon IP9500mkII with Ilford Galerie Smooth Lustre Duo (Data provided by Ilford UK website)
Conclusion
In respect of the colour accuracy the printers all perform very competently.
However, if you are looking for a printer to cope with saturated colours, or indeed a printer to produce fine art reproduction prints the order of preference would be:
EPSON 7900 – best overall
Canon IP9500mkII – 2nd best overall but suffers in the dark areas
HP Z3100 – 3rd best overall but suffers delivering detailed colour information in the dark areas (similar to the Canon IP9000mkII)
Canon IP9000mkII – best at Blues, suffers significantly in delivering detailed colour information in the dark areas
Profiled monitors are good right?
Think again.
Sure we all need a profiled monitor to do colour critical work, but how often is that. First thing in the morning when you turn on your computer to check your emails – does it need to be profiled? Not really. How about last thing at night? Got a DVD to watch, pop it into the computer and off you go… Does that need to be profiled?
At this time of year as you walk home in the dark, look up at the flats and the buildings around you. Remember that harsh blue glare you get oozing out of some of the windows. TV, yes? Who’s to say that we all need to watch our DVD’s on a D65 calibrated screen?
Just as ambient lighting can be a concern in your working environment when doing colour critical work, what’s to say that we shouldn’t match our screens to our environment for the ease of our eyes?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for profiling monitors for our colour critical workflow, but when was the last time you went to see a printer and the daylight balanced fluorescent strips just end up giving you a headache after 10 minutes? In fact headaches are a real concern for the majority of people working at computer screens nowadays. More so if you work at a D65 colour balanced high resolution monitor.
So this idea of allowing your screen to wonder in colour to suit your environment, or more specifically the time of day, was a paradigm change for the way I considered my working environment. That was when I heard about f.lux
You set your geographical location and the ambient lighting you use at night and hey presto, f.lux tailors your screen to reflect your ambient environment during the day. Sure you can switch it off in the drop-down control bar menu for all your colour critical needs, but if like me you end up waking up at 4am and fancy a bit of night surfing, you’ll no longer be blinded by your screen as it wakes up and lets the whole road know that you can’t sleep!
I’ve been trying it for a couple of weeks and all I can say is it takes the edge off a colour managed screen when you’re using it for general use. Oh, and no headaches. Oh, and it’s totally free. Thanks to Jeff Ngan who brought this gem to my attention.
so everyone has an opinion… here’s his…