[argyllcms] Re: Profile Epson printer: Eye-one Photo LT or Design LT ?

Geert,

> I noticed there is also a more expensive edition, Design LT. The
> difference seems to be that the Design LT can be used for profiling
> CYMK printers (in "limited mode" whatever that may mean

limited mode means here that X-Rite only allows to create a profile
based on a _very_ small target (45 colors for the RGB, dunno how few
colors for CMYK).

> Is this a limitation of the included spectrometer, or just the
> software bundled with it

You get a key which is loaded into the EyeOne. This works as a dongle
and tells the software which options it opens for the user. If you use
Argyll the difference won't matter -- buy the Photo LT version.

> I am asking because I don't know which one I should buy for my
> printer. My Epson Stylus Photo 950 is a 6-color inkjet printer
> (Cyan, Light-Cyan, Magenta, Light-Magenta, Yellow and Black). I
> would assume then that the printer is a CMYK printer.

All printers print with subtractive colors, but if you're not using a
RIP but the default drivers you will send RGB data to the printer. So
in this sense your printer is a RGB printer, although it uses CMYK (or
more) colors.

> Also, I believe I read in the Argyll CMS documentation that what
> really matters is the Driver's color space, whether the driver
> expects CMYK or RGB input. Or did I misunderstand ?

No, you did not misunderstand.

> I am using the Gutenprint drivers on linux for my printer. And I
> think this driver works in the CMYK color space, because I can tweak
> various cmyk density options in the advanced driver settings. But I
> don't know for sure. Anyone else know this ?

I don't use Linux and leave this question for someone else to answer.
I guess that you just can alter some parameters which are offered in
CMY mode, but still the printer is accessed like an RGB device?

> One more question here. The Argyll documentation mentions that it
> can only profile three color CMYK, but my printer appears to use
> five. Does that mean I can't profile this printer with Argyll ?

No, you don't access the printer colors direct, but send RGB data to
the printer. The conversion from RGB to the printer colors is done
inside the printer(driver).

Best regards
Peter

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